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Dyspraxia friendly activities for sport's day?

4 replies

Nonie241419 · 10/06/2014 00:05

For KS2. Any suggestions? I have a severely Dyspraxic child in my Y3 class. He's lovely and will have a go at everything, but his physical challenges are significant. We've worked really hard this year on raising his self esteem and I want to make sure he has some kind of success at the this end of year event (not necessarily winning, but not finishing well behind the others).

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nonicknameseemsavailable · 10/06/2014 23:56

how lovely you are thinking of him. what can he do sports wise? my eldest is almost like a compensating dyspraxic - scored acceptable on tests but physio said the way she does things is definitely not smooth and normal but she does manage to do them. She is lucky that if she is concentrating hard on an activity she can normally manage to do it but if she was trying to run across a room for a particular reason then she would fall over without doubt, in a sports day just running and concentrating on that then she wouldn't fall.
Is there something that he can do quite well and also do you have any control over who else is in each race? bit different but if you can put him with other children who find sport difficult then obviously it will help.

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tiredandsadmum · 11/06/2014 00:49

My ds is summer born (and has subsequently turned out to be dyslexic, dyscalculic but no obvious dyspraxia) and always did badly in school sports. In yr 3 last year his teacher (who organised sports day for the whole primary school) somehow "fixed" it so DS came in 3rd for the egg and spoon race and got a medal. I believe that he told DS he could run for part of it - sorry I cant quite remember the details. It must have involved the other teachers turning a blind eye to it. DS was chuffed to bits - really proud. So thank you for thinking of the students who don't do well - I had nearly got to the point of taking DS out for the day - it wasn't about him losing but yet another day of him losing yet more self esteem and confidence.

I wonder if there is a way to introduce a non-active role in a team - thinking about the cox in the Boat race - they don't row but contribute significantly in another way. eg cross year teams in a multi-event where a couple of the events would be more cerebral - like the large outdoor games - connect 4 , jenga or chess.

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Nonie241419 · 11/06/2014 10:36

He scores about as poorly as possible on the physical tests. He can run in a straight line on a flat surface, but is likely to struggle on the less smooth surface of the school field. His catching/throwing/holding is poor. He's such a trier, but trying to engineer a success will be very difficult. He has to race against his peers and the cohort's full of super sporty, football types.
I'm not sure there's the scope to put a more cerebral game in - he'd certainly struggle with something like Jenga.
I think I'll talk to his (lovely) mum and see if she has any suggestions. I think I'll also offer the choice of being my helper for the day - running my task with me and then helping to get the right children from our class up for each race. I absolutely don't want him to feel pushed out of competing, but I want him to know he doesn't have to do it.

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nonicknameseemsavailable · 15/06/2014 00:40

I think that is a good idea - give him the choice. I don't believe it should be compulsory personally and if he can have a valuable job on the day to feel part of it then that would be good but equally he might want to have a go.

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