In What Ways do Schools in Newtown Promote Adaptive Physical Education?
- Updated on 26 Apr 2021
- CBSE Board
- orchidadmin
Exercises for disabled children
Schools in Newtown, Kolkata are highly inclusive in nature and famous for their diversity. It doesn’t just apply to students of different races, cultures, and countries; it also welcomes children who are disabled. Not only do international schools provide academics for special children, but they also help them with physical education. Exercise, sports, and strenuous physical activities, in general, make up a colossal and significant part of children’s lives. While they add fun and nostalgic memories for the future-self, the prominent reason for a child to perform physical activities is they need it to grow up healthily.
With the advent of technology, children have begun using numerous gadgets that make sure that a child would become a permanent resident of a couch. No wonder childhood obesity and diabetes are on the rise. Lack of physical activities does not just contribute to such disorders but become the main reason for the problem in the first place. And when it comes to disabled children, the situation worsens because children with disabilities are often not as mobile as children without a disability. But they need it more for their motor development, and in some cases, it can save their lives.
So providing them physical education is crucial. But how do you provide physical education to a child who is, well, unwell physically and can not do activities which other children can do with ease? As you might have guessed, disabled children require unique lesson plans for their physical education. So it differs from child to child. As these lessons are ‘adaptive’ in nature, physical education lessons provided in schools in Newtown to disabled children are called ‘Adaptive Physical Education.’
Before we look into Adaptive Physical Education, let’s first see who disabled children are. Any child with physical limitations comes to everyone’s mind first, including the visual and hearing impaired. But there are other detrimental conditions which can make a child disabled, and it is not limited to just physical shortcoming. Conditions such as autism and intellectual disabilities are also disabilities that can prevent children from doing as better in academics and physical education as their peers.
Adaptive Physical Education aims to help children with disabilities appreciate the goodness of physical activities because it is strongly linked to their wellbeing. As disabled children do not move around a lot, they have a higher chance of suffering from obesity, diabetes, or heart-related conditions. For some, the motor developments would be stunned, or blood pressure would become uncontrolled, which might lead to other severe problems such as stroke. To prevent these health conditions, which can become fatal to a disabled child, teaching them physical activities is mandatory.
Adaptive Physical Education in International Schools
Teachers in schools in Newtown are qualified professionals with experience in providing Adaptive Physical Education. They have worked with countless children with patience and will to make physical activity a part of disabled children’s lives. Some have even gone to help make athletes who broke records in Special Olympics. Let’s see how they go about their noble job.
As each disabled child suffers different conditions, no definitive structure or action plan fits all of them. But there are a few basics:
- Teachers should know to operate/troubleshoot the disabled child’s mobility device. Professionals at international schools have had experience with almost all the kinds of equipment used commonly by disabled children, so they are more than capable of handling them. What’s more? Well, many teachers also know how to troubleshoot a problem in a particular piece of equipment should a need arise. In fact, most Adaptive Physical Education specialists spend a good chunk of time learning about different types of mobility devices disabled children use.
- In general, teachers are given training in handling sudden health conditions of children, such as seizures or wheezing. And specialists in Adaptive Physical Education are trained in the same topic but to a higher level, as children with disabilities have to take medications, even if they don’t suffer sudden health bouts. Parents and Adaptive Physical Education specialists generally discuss a child’s medication and their side effects, if any, in detail before starting a session. It is not uncommon for veteran Adaptive Physical Education teachers to go through a child’s medical records or consult with his/her physicians.
- Specialists must also be good conversationalists. Children with disabilities are timid with low self-esteem and morale. So infusing enough courage and hope in them to make them participate in physical activities is not an easy task. Teachers at Orchids, The International School are adept at building a rapport with any disabled child. They realise the importance of team spirit, self-confidence and patience required in any physical activity and strive to inculcate these qualities in children. Eventually, they will make the child feel confident enough to start their exercises.
- At the end of the day, what are childhood exercises, if not fun? Adaptive Physical Education specialists in Schools In New Town, Kolkata make sure that children thoroughly enjoy the workouts. It is a delicate balance to make children work till it is beneficial to their health but not so much that it becomes a chore that they dislike. So specialists pay attention to how well a child enjoys a particular activity and based on that, they modify their future sessions to make it optimal.
A good teacher of Adaptive Physical Education is someone who encourages a disabled child to reach for the stars. They have the responsibility to give disabled children numerous examples of disabled people achieving incredible feats in sports. And as schools in Newtown have teachers who have tremendous knowledge about world affairs, they will do an excellent job at motivating disabled children to explore their true potential.
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