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Neurodiverse PE
JohnMcCainsDeathStare · 10/02/2022 21:48
After yet another PE thread where the magic and ritual of thinking that letting children pick teams is ever a good idea how would a ND-friendly PE lesson look like?
Given the limitations of resources I am thinking more like active play where people can exercise on their own with supervision or play different team games - like Tag or Treachery for instance.
Focus would be given on challenges like balance, obstacle courses or beating your own high scores.
Team sports would be optional but technique coaching for specific aspects (e.g agility, sprinting etc) would be given.
Focus on movement and form as well as self-improvement.
Any thoughts?
LilyRed · 10/02/2022 23:56
@EinsteinVonBrainstorm
Ohh, trampolining was my happy place! No teams, no awful PE teacher to tell me 'You're too fat, nobody will ever chose you' Well thanks for that Mrs Brassey...
And swimming - not competitive, just swimming.
JohnMcCainsDeathStare · 14/02/2022 21:10
More instruction on how to do stuff - like handstandds, skipping, how to hit balls etc. More games like Ultimate Frisbee or FootGolf where the teams are smaller.
No try something, fail something, get written off as 'can't do chin ups' or similar but are never instructed.
ofwarren · 14/02/2022 22:23
I enjoyed rounders, cricket, softball and tennis at school. I enjoyed the feel of hitting a ball really hard. I'd have liked more opportunity to do that more often.
I detested running and being forced to do cross-country was just torture.
Just more option to do the sports I liked and not do the others would have suited me.
DaisyWaldron · 16/02/2022 16:54
I loved CrossFit because it was very intense and absorbing, and although there was often pair/group work, it didn't really matter what level you were at because you were mostly competing with yourself, and the atmosphere was very supportive. That's my ideal pe class. I think there's enough diversity among ND people that there isn't really an ideal ND PE format.
deeplyrooted · 16/02/2022 19:04
In terms of picking teams a more nd-friendly strategy is to let each person picked, pick the next person rather than the team captains choosing everyone. It helps to start with people in the middle-low range too.
alternative options for those who don’t want to participate
Lots of movement breaks throughout the day
A variety of sports and activities instead of constant bloody football.
These are all implemented in my dc’ school. My own school preferred to weaponise bullying and mockery for motivation.
sadpapercourtesan · 16/02/2022 19:06
Beanbags, rugs and a bookcase in one corner for those of us who would prefer not to engage at all, please 
Just the words "PE", "games" and "sport" make me go cold all over. Freezing, mud-spattered legs being smacked with a bone-hard white hockey ball, the stench of rubber floors and sweaty trainers. Ugh.
BoardLikeAMirror · 16/02/2022 19:32
I have rubbish co-ordination so it took me ages to learn how to do some things, but once I learned I could do things like bouncing a ball, skipping with a rope, or playing myself at swing ball for hours - I would go off into a total daydream and stay in the garden for hours in summer. So that would be my ideal P.E.
I was no good at team games, or gym - could never do handstands or pull myself up a rope, and I'm scared of heights when unsupported (i.e. fine at the top of a tower-block but not up a 5 foot ladder). No good at running - I seemed to get out of breath really quickly although I wasn't unfit and could/can walk for hours.
I was usually last to be picked for teams due to a combination of unpopularity and being bad at games. I didn't define myself as a games player so it didn't particularly trouble me. I used to try to get positions like 'left back' in hockey, so I could hopefully stand unnoticed on the edge of the field.
I was relatively good at basketball due to my ball-bouncing skills (for dribbling) but we hardly ever played it; I'm also a good swimmer, but my school's pool was shut due to dilapidation when I was a second year, so that avenue of tolerable PE was shut down.
Basically, good ND PE would simply be being allowed to do your physical activity of choice!
BachAndByte · 16/02/2022 19:37
@BoardLikeAMirror That’s really interesting about the running. I had exactly the same thing - teachers put it down to a lack of fitness, but I could walk / swim / cycle / dance for hours - just couldn’t run anywhere without getting out of breath. I wonder now whether I just didn’t know how to pace myself properly and of course running technique was never taught!
BoardLikeAMirror · 16/02/2022 19:46
That is interesting, BachAndByte. I've never seemed to have any strength in my back muscles and as a result I've always been very round-shouldered, so it could be something like my rib cage compressing my lungs - which wouldn't happen when I was walking evenly or swimming, for example. As you say, there was never a whiff of technique tuition!
Some teachers didn't seem to understand people who physically couldn't run as far as they wanted us because it was too painful - they seemed to think people who had to walk were just being lazy.
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