Personal training for SEN children and young people

[PaediatricOT]

Hi, I've been a children's Occupational Therapist (OT) for 10 years and I'm seeing an increasing need for the use of personal trainers who could work with children or young people with SEN. This could either take the form of individual sessions or small groups, much like mainstream holiday sports clubs but targeted to, and accessible for, young people with a range of additional needs. In my role I’m seeing an increasing need to progress the typical Primary school aged strategies and exercises into functional life skills and age appropriate exercises for Secondary aged pupils and older. I'm looking to work with and combine my paeds OT skills with a personal trainer with SEN experience to establish and run such sessions and groups. The sessions and goals would be planned jointly so they’d incorporate both OT and personal training perspectives. We’re thinking to run the groups on weekends and school holidays, although individual sessions could take place at any time. I'd welcome parents'/carers' thoughts on the need for this and whether it would be something you would consider. Thanks in advance

Are the sessions for purposes of creating accessible sports clubs or for the purposes of developing functional skills? What sort of functional skills are you looking to target? Is this therapy or fun or both? Sorry for all the questions trying to gets a picture of how “sessions” would look as it were.

I'd jump at this for my dyspraxic 12 year old! Something that improved his fitness, coordination and confidence would be amazing.

The sessions would be needs-led. We could offer groups that work on specific skills, I.e strength training, balance, agility, upper limb or core or leg strength etc. And/or we can run accessible sports clubs if the demand was there. Individual sessions would, like any OT or personal training sessions, be built around the needs and goals of the individual. We’re trying to get a feel for what the need/interest/requests are for such sessions - if any.

@Igglepigglesgrubbyblanket thanks for the feedback! That’s exactly the kind of need I’m seeing in my line of work that made me start planning this idea with a personal trainer. I’ve initiated his help with young people on my caseload before and the results are exciting. It seems more motivating for older children who need on-going strategies but are bored of, or for whom existing strategies are no longer developmentally appropriate. The deep pressure/heavy work activities work on all the goals I’d want to work on as an OT (ie sensory processing/strengthening/balance) but in a more functional and age appropriate way - one that’s more specific and bespoke than an OT alone could offer the young person.

Definitely pm me with details if/when you start doing this :-)

Fantastic idea! I would definitely be up for this!

To echo the poster above. Please private message me for details and when you will be running this.

I think this is an amazing idea. I’ve looked around for this sort of thing for my HFA 5.5 year old son but never found anything. What would appeal to me would be something more sporty based which would improve co-ordination and strength and also some sports type pre-skills like kicking, throwing, catching but in a really fun way and also in a group of a similar standard. My son is really active but I fear that once he realises he isn’t actually that fast he may lose confidence and get put off being physically active. Please do this!

@Bigcitylights thanks for your feedback. Like you, I’ve also looked around for this kind of thing to recommend to families, but to no avail. Hence our passion to set something up. From the response here so far I definitely think we’ll do it. If the need is there, we can make it happen.

Sounds good ... if really fun / motivating. PM me too please.

Esp interested in something focussing on core / shoulder strength / upper body stamina (esp for writing skills).

Getting my son to do core exercises (properly) is impossible. Would only be keen on private sessions or if I could be very choosy about others in group - wasted time and £ on OT group sessions with a very mixed cohort.