11 minute read
Making sport accessible to all
Louis Wickett-Padgham looks at what needs to be done to enable children with SEN and disabilities to benefit from physical activity
Every child and young person, no matter how complex their disabilities, deserves the right to enjoy a physically active life. Sport and physical activity play a huge role in keeping people fit and healthy, supporting social inclusion and building confidence through learning new skills and making friends.
Advertisement
There are so many physical, mental and social benefits to being active but, according to the Sport England’s Active Lives Children and Young People Survey 2018/19, disabled children and young people are more likely to be less active than non-disabled children. The study also showed that disabled people are more likely to have poorer wellbeing and experience loneliness.
What are the barriers to sport and physical activity?
There are many reasons why those with SEN and disabilities do not have equal access to sport and physical activity: activities may not be inclusive; sports and fitness venues can be inaccessible to them; provision is often limited in many areas; staff and organisers can lack confidence in, and training on, how to deliver inclusive activities; and perceptions about the capabilities of children and young people with SEN are often inaccurate.
left out. Whatever the barriers may be, it’s important to work towards breaking them down and providing environments where all children have the time, space and confidence to be active in a way that suits them.
What are the benefits?
Aside from the obvious benefits of improving physical fitness and health, sport and physical activity can provide opportunities for children and young people with SEN and disabilities to be active, while promoting greater independence. Involvement in sport can be crucial in tackling isolation and loneliness, which is particularly important given that half of disabled people say they are lonely. In addition, an activity such as yoga, for example, can help to make everyday tasks more manageable by improving strength, balance and mobility.
Creating sports opportunities for children and young people with SEN and disabilities doesn’t just help the individuals themselves but has many other far-reaching benefits. It can help to influence perceptions about what is possible for disabled
children and young people, and it can encourage the health and social care sectors to become better equipped to support them. This, in turn, will encourage stronger collaboration across these sectors, and even government at all levels can be influenced to understand and pay more attention to the role that sport and physical activities can play in the lives of all children and young people. The more we can encourage inclusion and participation in sport for people with disabilities and SEN, the more we can help to reshape attitudes and bring about real change in society.
Franklyn is deafblind and has cerebral palsy and epilepsy. When rock climbing was first suggested to his support workers, they were unsure about whether he would be able to take part in the activity, as he had never tried anything like it before.
For the first couple of weeks, Franklyn spent his time at the sessions becoming familiar with the environment, the equipment and the instructor. However, it wasn’t long before he started to try climbing with a member of the support staff climbing alongside him and encouraging him along the way. By week eight, Franklyn was regularly climbing to the top and starting to explore the climbing wall by himself. He has really taken to the activity and both his key support worker, Suzanne, and his mother have seen a big change in him. Suzanne said:
About the author
Louis Wickett-Padgham is Sport and Physical Activity Development Manager at the charity Sense, which supports people living with complex disabilities, including those who are deafblind, to communicate and experience the world.
sense.org.uk @LouisW_P @sensecharity
“For Franklyn, the sessions have meant he has been able to develop a relationship with someone outside of the charity that supports him, a very trusting relationship with the instructor. He’s definitely become quite confident and it’s increased his strength.”
How to support participation in sport
It is essential that everyone involved in supporting children and young people with SEN and disabilities works closely together, and with the wider community, to develop a range of inclusive sports and physical activities that meet the needs of these young people. Experienced instructors and providers can help to make sessions enjoyable, accessible, inclusive and fun.
A huge range of inclusive activities are available, from cycling and climbing, to dance, football, swimming, martial arts, table tennis and yoga. Flexibility is a key element in making these activities a success; sessions should be adapted depending on the needs, abilities and interests of the young person taking part. For example, yoga can be done standing or seated, while adapted bicycles can include tricycles, tandems and platform bikes for wheelchair users. Sometimes, participants also need to take their time to explore the space and equipment freely, and sessions can include fun games as a way of introducing people to the activities and getting them moving.
When adapting sports to make them inclusive, it’s often about breaking down the principles of each sport into bitesize elements which can be explored in a more sensory way. For example, in inclusive football the principle of tackling to win possession of the football can be adapted to get participants to make shoulder-to-shoulder or foot-to-foot contact, encouraging them to use their own strength to experience tackling in a way that is more engaging to them.
By taking an inclusive approach, and by being inventive, we can all work together to increase the range of sport and physical activities available to people with SEN and disabilities, so that no-one should be isolated, left out or unable to fulfil their potential.
Advertisement feature
Swim England releases new awards supporting SEND pupils in school swimming
Swim England has released a brand new set of awards – the School Swimming Foundation Awards – which are part of the nationally recognised Swim England School Swimming and Water Safety Awards scheme.
The new awards are designed to provide support and recognition to school children with special educational needs, disabilities or other needs which mean they are unable or are taking longer to achieve the full national curriculum requirements for swimming and water safety: • perform safe self-rescue in different water based situations • swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres • use a range of strokes effectively.
There are six School Swimming Foundation Awards, each with a number of outcomes, which help pupils to progress in smaller steps and achieve personal goals, either with or without support.
The awards focus on the following: • acclimatisation to the pool environment • water confidence and individual core aquatic skills • moving and travelling around the pool, giving pupils a feel for recognisable strokes and offering them the opportunity to progress to front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke if they are able essential water safety.
The main aims of the awards are to: • ensure all pupils have access to the most essential swimming and water safety skills, whatever their ability • provide reward and recognition to every pupil who participates in school swimming lessons • keep all pupils motivated to continue with their school swimming lessons • provide schools with a more comprehensive range of inclusive materials and guidance for pupils of different abilities. The School Swimming Foundation Awards are available to all schools that are members of the Swim England School Swimming and Water Safety Charter. More information on the Charter and how to sign your school up can be found at
swimming.org/schools
Inclusive outdoor play
Outdoor play spaces must be nurturing and welcoming for all pupils, writes Kristina Causer
Albert Einstein famously described play as “the highest form of research”. Play England, in their Charter for Children’s Play, define it as “what children and young people do when they follow their own ideas and interests, in their own way, and for their own reasons.”
Play is so important that in 2010, the Welsh Government even made it a legal requirement for every Welsh local authority to secure sufficient play opportunities in their area for children. Yet it seems we still have to fight for the rights of children’s play, particularly for children with SEN and disabilities.
The benefits of play
With today’s children aged five to sixteen spending, on average, six hours a day in front of a screen, the benefits of outdoor play have perhaps never been more in evidence. Play offers children freedom and space; it increases their self-esteem, awareness, physical and mental health; it builds resilience; and it fosters learning and problem solving. Crucially, outdoor play promotes children’s learning and development in a way that indoor environments simply cannot match. It also provides a wonderful equal opportunity, that normal day-to-day life may not afford them, for children with SEN to socialise with others.
Play spaces, either within schools or in public spaces, fulfil a vital function in our communities. They foster a deep connection with the natural world, encouraging children to be more active and motivated and therefore more open to learning.
Children need daily exercise. Current NHS guidance states that children should aim for “an average of at least 60 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity a day across the week”. For young children, this won’t involve formalised team sports or gym equipment, so it will probably all be through play.
Play for everyone
If we accept the importance of play for children, we must embrace its value for every child. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for the requirements of children with SEN and disabilities to be neglected in playground design –not generally because of a lack of care but because their requirements are not properly understood. Government figures show that around 6 per cent of children (more than one in 20) under the age of 16 in the UK has a disability. So, even given the disproportionate number of children with SEN and disabilities in special school
settings, most of our classrooms will have at least one child with a disability. So it is essential for educators and play space providers to recognise some of the key issues around accessibility and inclusion facing children SEN and disabilities.
The six senses of inclusive play
How can we design play environments that include all children? For any local authority, school or individual looking to answer this question, it can be a daunting prospect to seek to understand the full range of needs of children with different SEN and disabilities. However, if we can understand every child’s play needs at a basic level, it becomes much easier for us to deliver a more complete and inclusive play environment.
The six senses we are concerned with (excluding the seventh sense of taste, which can be challenging to cater for in a play space) are all core senses that every child should seek to engage (as far as they are able) on a regular basis for a healthy mind and body, and to be able to negotiate and interact with the world around them.
Proprioception develops an awareness of self, allowing children to know where there limbs are without looking at them. Load bearing activities on joints, such as trampolining or using monkey bars, can be great for this.
The vestibular sense responds to movements of the head or body, helping maintain physical balance, and is linked to healthy brain development. Roundabouts and swings offer excellent vestibular play opportunities.
About the author
Kristina Causer is Head of Sales and Marketing at Jupiter Play and Leisure Ltd. She was the original founder and co-author of the PiPA toolkit, which is widely used in the play industry.
jupiterplay.co.uk linkedin.com/company/jupiter-play-&-leisure-ltd linkedin.com/in/kristina-causer
Touch enables us to feel differences in pressure, texture, traction, pain and temperature. Activities and equipment that allow children to purposefully explore texture can be very useful here, such as play panels, water play and loose materials.
Sight orientated play can improve hand-eye coordination skills and general perception. It can include activities that allow children to play with light, reflection or perspective, such as mirrored objects.
Sound is a key part of our cognitive development, as it involves taking in and processing a lot of information. It can be useful to provide children with opportunities to make their own sounds, for example, with things like chimes, rattles and talk tubes.
Smell also contributes greatly to our information gathering and processing activities. Our sense of smell is really brought to the fore in outdoor spaces, and can really help in creating a connection to a particular environment. The power of nature can be represented, for example, by hardy herbs and plants like lavender and rosemary.
Individual development
If we are serious about designing play spaces for inclusion, all children –regardless of their developmental level, age or ability –should have a choice of activities available to them that they can enjoy with their peers.
By offering children a wide range of activities, and opportunities to engage with their own preferred play tasks, we can also help them to free themselves from some of the pressures of a busy play space or playground. There is a great deal of value in supporting children to connect with their environment, and the people in it, on their own terms. Providing a play space that nurtures a broadly based sensory diet will encourage children to explore their own sensations, while helping them to develop their skills, make their own choices and, of course, have fun.
