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Aspergers/HFA Kids and Difficulties in Physical Education Class

"My child (high functioning) absolutely hates gym class. He has a lot of difficulty keeping up with the others and says the teacher yells at him a lot. Is this a fairly normal thing for Asperger's children? Do you have any suggestions on how I can help him with gym class activities?"

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4 comments:

Robyn said...

My son had to leave Gym class for the remainder of the year, he couldn't handle the echoing, the yelling kids, the loud yelling teacher, or the chaos. :( He's now doing better, but its hard to see him not get the sports learning.

Unknown said...

I am near 70 now, have never been officially evaluated as being Asperger's, and have no children, so I probably have no place in this discussion. However, the more I read about it, the more I believe it was the base of most of my trouble when I was young. When I was a child, I hated gym class too. This was in the late '50's. I hated the classmates and especially two teachers specifically who went out of their way to degrade and ridicule me. I feel I could not pick up on the signals that the other guys seemed to see so easily, I was uncoordinated and slow. I feel I would have been far better off to have had 20 minutes or a half-hour of calisthenics and then been allowed another study hall or another class, rather than face the scorn of teachers and classmates. It completely eroded my self-confidence and took me years and a couple shrinks to somewhat repair it.

Caroline Richardson said...

My son hated gym class for all the reasons listed above but he started rock climbing at a climbing gym and loves it. We got him out of gym class and onto an after school rock climbing team and he and his teachers are much happier. Finding the right sport is critical. Rock climbing is great because it is mostly an individual challenge, has a problem solving component, and is a great strength and aerobic work out, but is not demanding in terms of coordination or reaction time.

Caroline Richardson said...

Try rock climbing if you have a climbing gym in your town. It is mostly an individual challenge sport, involves some problem solving, is a great strength and aerobic work out but is not too demanding in terms of reaction time or coordination. Lots of kids on the Asperger's continuum hang out at rock climbing gyms and do very well there. It is a great place for kids to find friends too.

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