Personal Training kids with Autism
There has been a growing amount of kids who have been diagnosed as autistic. The English schooling system doesn’t know how to handle these kids so they are labelled. They might come across as the naughty kids in school who are the ones that can’t sit still or concentrate like all the others.
All kids are different just like all people are unique. If we were all the same it would be a very boring planet. Autistic kids need specific help even though some might not look or act like it. To me they are as normal as all the other kids. They just take a lot longer to learn and understand. This doesn’t mean we have to segregate them out of society because they are different.
As a personal trainer who has been working with an autistic child for over a year now I have noticed some great qualities they have as people. This is based on my own view of the child I have been working with.
Trust
Trust is something that is built up over time. Once I had built a trust base with my client, they understood the I was there to help them reach their goals. Which made my client think that great things can be accomplished when effort is put in.
Honesty
They are honest and will tell you how they feel. They won’t keep it wrapped up inside it is best to express how they feel. In my case it was towards the exercise I have been providing. This allowed me to overcome the times when something didn’t want to be done. To still make the sessions productive.
Respect
They respect you more as an individual because they know you are their to help them. I wasn’t just there to provide a service and leave. I was there to help a young person with there physical appearance. So I noticed that they feed of what you do. If I was respectful they would be respectful back.
What I noticed personal training autistic kids
I noticed that autistic kids are more engaged when their sensory system is activated. This help me as a personal trainer who wants a child to engage in something that they don’t particularly like.
Music
Music is something that engages the brain if it recognises the music and the individual enjoys listening to the song. So, I asked my client what sort of music they want to listen to. Compared to the time when I didn’t play any music the amount of engagement was so much greater.
Fun
Making the session as fun as possible was a tool I was using from the beginning. I usually use table tennis as a distraction from the real workout. We would play a rally to 5 point then do a set of an exercise. The table tennis was engaging from a vision point of view. Hand eye co-ordination of the ball being hit over the net and repeatedly doing so made the session mush easier to get through from a child perspective.
Speaking
I would spark a convocation towards what my client liked to do in his down time. This would get them to engage in conversation. The more I know of what my client liked, I could incorporate it into the session to make it more specific.
Last Word
As a personal trainer in Windsor who trains a number of different age groups. The aspects I have found out about autistic people is that they are just like the rest of use. They get given this label and are told they are different. I think they just take a lot more time to process things and are more cautious.