SEN skiing

[Redwood88]

Posted here for traffic.

My son is in process of being diagnosed with adhd. He finds it difficult to follow instructions and be told what to do but he’d love to learn to ski and as a family we’re desperate to ski too. We’re intermediate.

can anyone reccommend a good ski resort for ski school for children with SEN or private lessons? He’s 6.

thank you

I don’t think you need a specialist teacher. He will not be the first 6 year old boy who doesn’t listen to instructions well. You really need someone with patience who is ideally also quite fun.

Private lessons are a really good idea for kids (SEN or not) as progress is much quicker and at least if he’s not listening it won’t affect the rest of the class so be less of a problem for the instructor. And IME 2 hrs of private instruction equals 6+ hours of larger group lessons!

Usually for beginners I would suggest smaller resorts, but in this case I think you’d really benefit from a choice of fluent English speaking private instructors, which is going to be easier to find in the bigger resorts, especially those popular with Brits. Highly recommend going first week of Easter hols rather than Feb half term as it’s far less busy and there’s more instructor availability.

Maison Sport is a good website that lists lots of private instructors for various ski resorts - they mostly have reviews so you can see which ones have more experience with kids. You may not find anyone with SEN experience specifically but if you read the reviews you may find comments like “great patience with my two tearaways” which would be a good sign. I’d say that the older instructors tend to be a bit more tough on kids and “old school” so may not be such a good fit - of course this is a broad generalisation and will be unfair to some but just my experience!

hope this helps

Unbelievably helpful. We've just had a really tough week with our son behaviour wise and your kind and helpful message has really given me the positive outlook and motivation I needed to see that I can make this work. Thank you.

My lad learnt at the local ski place with weekly lessons. Groups of 10 kids 2 teachers. Kids pick it up really quickly so its worth a go.

My DD’s went into normal lessons, the instructors seemed unfazed by hyper dd or autistic dd, in fact their instructor said they wouldn’t have been surprised if the whole class of 10 had ADHD, and that being a physical activity it was great for those who benefited from using their bodies. We always went to Scotland (I’m not a skier but like mountain walking instead)

In response to the PP I would agree that normal group lessons are still an option.

But having learned myself in group lessons as a child vs seeing how fast my kids learned in private lessons - I would say opt for private if budget permits. For all kids SEN or not! Or if you go group, look for the companies that guarantee max 6-8 kids.

PS if he’s anything like mine with SN, prepare yourself for him to be exhausted and possibly not great behaviour wise in the evenings. But mine absolutely love the skiing and from age 9 ish the evenings got better too.

Thanks this is really helpful. If you don’t mind me asking which resorts would you recommend and time of year? Ideally don’t want to take out during term time even though holiday prices are ridiculous
thanks

@Redwood88 i’d get this moved to the Skiing topic rather than AIBU.

I would definitely take a week out of school for this. The generally quieter slopes, restaurants etc will be an advantage I’m sure.

i’d also think about staying in a chalet where kids have their evening meal at 6ish and adults eat later. It means no tired and hungry kids! They can have a bath and go to bed (skiing is tiring!).

You could have a look at Family Ski Company. It’s a while since we went with them but they used to put a member of their staff in with the beginners class to help out with getting up, gloves, snacks etc and be a link between the instructor and parents. It worked really well for us

For my DS with ADHD and ASD at that age we went to hinterglemm in Austria.
He had private lessons with Skischule Snow and Fun.
His instructor took breaks and snacks whenever DS needed.

We went there 3 times over a few years. DS had private lessons each time but some days the instructor would join us for an hour so we could all ski together.

DS has gone on school ski trips since and does group lessons with his friends.