What sport does your ADHD/ASD child do?

[UnderTheAntenna]

DS takes part in the juniors of a sports activity (organised through a school, run by a club), but next year he will be too old for the juniors and would have to join the club itself. His coach doesn't think he will manage with club level because they expect a higher level of focus and attention than is required at juniors where he can coast along and be carried by the rest of the team. With ADHD, this just isn't possible for him.

I'm going to slowly start drip feeding to him that it might not be the best idea to continue with this sport and he could try out something else. But what? We go on bike rides, swimming and walks with him at the weekend and he does enjoy it. However I'd like to keep him in an activity with other children during the week as it has been a huge benefit to him socially.

I'll echo PP and suggest trampolining. The club that DS (ASD) belongs to run several classes for people with disabilities. Ds started off in one of these but has graduated to a mainstream class. Apparently trampolining is very good for people with dyspraxia and I have certainly noticed DS has become a bit more organised-looking now, initially his arms and legs were very sprawly and disunited, but this has improved considerably. They have to wait at the side for their turns on the trampolines and they tend to chat and play together while they wait, so there is a certain amount of socialising too. Ds is accepted and included in this group, so I am very happy with that.

He also does swimming, which is another non-team sport with an element of socialising in it. I'd like him to do more swimming but it won't be easy to find a club that suits him, ie that doesn't push members to be entering competitions and galas all the time.

DS is nearly 8 and has ASD and plays both ice hockey and inline (roller) hockey. He absolutely loves it and we have found that the ice rink has very quickly become his 'happy place'- if he is anxious/stressed, an hour of skating relaxes him massively. There are quite a number of junior teams across the country, DS is in the Learn to Play programme of our local EIHL team and it is very inclusive. He also has a private skating lesson once a week.

OP: sorry,j ust saw your question to me. She's combined type. Strongly hyperactive/impulsive, but also high on inattention. She's medicated now (Elvanse 30mg) which helps, but we found our way to all the activities before we even thought she might be ADHD

My DS (5) does dancing, swimming, football, icehockey and table tennis. He is obsessed with rules and following them so sport is heaven to him. He also wants to do Taekwondo, parkour and orienteering but they don't take them at his age.

We've tried hockey / ice and that was a complete non-starter. He doesn't have the stability to go on ice and it panicked him. Climbing is also difficult for him (lack of core and upper body strength, and coordination)
These are good ideas, thanks! I have found a karate club who also run a SN group, so I hope they might be more patient with him. Except he doesn't really want to do karate... Might it be worth it for self defence?
I hadn't thought of trampolining, so I'll look into that. We're on the waiting list for swimming.

Just be aware that if he is hyper mobile (as a lot of children with asd are) then trampolining might be difficult/injury prone.

Thanks for the tip Come. I suspect he might be, but I will talk with his physio before we try anything new. argh, it's so difficult! It's just like at school, he's too affected to be able to keep up with the other children, yet not badly affected enough for any meaningful help.

DS does cricket, football, kick boxing and badminton. He does take medication for ADHD which helps massively. He does get stressed at times but not too often. He finds it hard when kids are unkind (this happens a lot more in football than the others).

Kickboxing is great as he really has to focus on the technical side so that bit is pretty structured. He does not like sparring much though as it's too much sensory wise.