Study break HPE at Silverdale Normal

 Study break HPE at Silverdale Normal

Over the 2 week study break I worked at Silverdale Normal in two classrooms and specifically with an autistic boy (6 years old) concentrating on his motor skills using balls.
The focus of the activities was throwing, kicking and striking skills. Working 20-30 minutes a day with him we played games which concentrated on these skills such as kicking a ball from a standing position and being able to run and kick a ball with correct foot placement, throwing and catching and striking using T-ball and hockey. For these he could choose a classmate to join him if he wanted. At times he did other times he did not feel the need for a classmate, this all depended on his mood on the day and what other things he was feeling that day. the later in the day we went out the more he wanted to be alone in these activities.

We focussed on striking kills associated with:

• Kicking a stationary ball
• Kicking a stationary ball towards a goal
• Kicking a ball rolled or passed to him (soccer)
• Holding and kicking a ball
• Hitting a stationary ball (T-ball and hockey )
• Hitting a ball rolled or passed to him (hockey

Passing and throwing skills associated with:

• Passing a ball from hand to hand
• throwing a ball into a target area, hoop and box
• Throwing underarm and overarm (underarm was more concentrated on)
• Bouncing a ball to another person
• Throwing to another person

Catching skills to accompany the throwing skills:

• Catching a bounced ball
• catching a ball bounced to him
• Moving to smaller balls to catch
• throwing a ball high and catching it
• Catching a ball thrown to him.
• Being able to throw against a wall and catch it.

General ball skills:

• Dribbling a basketball and shoot.
• move a hockey ball around cones keeping it close.
• Playing a variation of hockey moving and hitting each cone with the ball.

 Each day varied in part due to his focus and attitude, the skills worked on previously and the weather. Some days were better than others and we had to work with this and keep his attention by making it interesting and fun for him to learn the new skills and bring games into the mix. We introduced a class member to the equation to try to make it more real and see that these are skills he can use out of the classroom.
He really enjoyed hockey and baseball (T-ball), these he would crave and were used as rewards after other activities to get his participation in the other activities.Something that he could look forward to.

This was a great experience and my work and relationship with this boy will continue till the beginning of Prac3.