Low muscle tone kid to build endurance

[Anonymous]

My son has so many interests that he does many activities outside of school every single week. He does not do well in every activities which are fine to him & me as long as he has fun and gets some social interaction aspects with other boys. Unfortunately all activities I am talking about are considered sports, and he does 3-5 different ones every single week. His endurance is low, and his low muscle tone is not helpful. He is easily tired and exhausted. We thought that all types of sports should have helped him a bit to build up his endurance over the last few years, but it seems it has not been that helpful. What do we miss? The sports he has been doing for the year are either seasonal or year around, and they are soccer, basketball, rock climbing, outdoor boy meet club, and he just drops swimming. Almost all activities squeeze together and meet mostly on weekends, except the weekday soccer & basketball practice.

He tells me that he wants to add to give top golf and fencing a try because it sounds fun (friends are there), I hesitate if he can put up with all these things due to his low endurance. As I say, he loves and enjoys all these activities for fun/recreational and I need to support him. I just need help to build up his endurance to keep up his energy level to keep him going or else it would be sad that he is forced to make choices one day to give some up because his body cannot handle them anymore. Any advice?

[Anonymous]

How old is he? As kids get older many secondary activities get dropped. Is/was he in PT or OT perhaps they could offer guidance. For now, if you are willing and able to keep a full plate go for it. My main worry could be that as they get older other kids could be rude with the no( keeping up or endurance factors.

[Anonymous]

I would allow him to do everything that he wants to do. The best things that we did for our autistic (slightly hypotonic) son was put him in sports classes/leagues. It helped him build muscle and confidence and learn how to interact with other boys. Sporty boys often have more social currency. My son is now in college and plays tennis, flag-football, soccer, and basketball.

[Anonymous]

Op here. He is 11. There has been no cuts, no tryouts, and they all seem to be nice for now. He has not narrowed down to 1-2 sports because he has no potential & does not good well in any. He just wants to take lessons or join team to have fun and play as long as I keep paying and driving him to attend. It woild be awesome if he can continue and still play some sports as an adult for leisure or fun.

OT would not provide much guidance and it does not help with low muscle tone after years of therapies. We gave not tried PT yet. I hear that PT normally don't take insurance, don't they? We have cigna in MoCo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. He is 11. There has been no cuts, no tryouts, and they all seem to be nice for now. He has not narrowed down to 1-2 sports because he has no potential & does not good well in any. He just wants to take lessons or join team to have fun and play as long as I keep paying and driving him to attend. It woild be awesome if he can continue and still play some sports as an adult for leisure or fun.

OT would not provide much guidance and it does not help with low muscle tone after years of therapies. We gave not tried PT yet. I hear that PT normally don't take insurance, don't they? We have cigna in MoCo.

If you want to try PT, Early Intervention Associates in Rockville is great and take insurance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son has so many interests that he does many activities outside of school every single week. He does not do well in every activities which are fine to him & me as long as he has fun and gets some social interaction aspects with other boys. Unfortunately all activities I am talking about are considered sports, and he does 3-5 different ones every single week. His endurance is low, and his low muscle tone is not helpful. He is easily tired and exhausted. We thought that all types of sports should have helped him a bit to build up his endurance over the last few years, but it seems it has not been that helpful. What do we miss? The sports he has been doing for the year are either seasonal or year around, and they are soccer, basketball, rock climbing, outdoor boy meet club, and he just drops swimming. Almost all activities squeeze together and meet mostly on weekends, except the weekday soccer & basketball practice.

He tells me that he wants to add to give top golf and fencing a try because it sounds fun (friends are there), I hesitate if he can put up with all these things due to his low endurance. As I say, he loves and enjoys all these activities for fun/recreational and I need to support him. I just need help to build up his endurance to keep up his energy level to keep him going or else it would be sad that he is forced to make choices one day to give some up because his body cannot handle them anymore. Any advice?

Top golf and fencing sounds better for him than the others. Tae kwon do was fantastic for my low tone kids. I'd go with his interests but also gently try to steer him to activities where he can be more successful, because that builds confidence and is usually more enjoyable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. He is 11. There has been no cuts, no tryouts, and they all seem to be nice for now. He has not narrowed down to 1-2 sports because he has no potential & does not good well in any. He just wants to take lessons or join team to have fun and play as long as I keep paying and driving him to attend. It woild be awesome if he can continue and still play some sports as an adult for leisure or fun.

OT would not provide much guidance and it does not help with low muscle tone after years of therapies. We gave not tried PT yet. I hear that PT normally don't take insurance, don't they? We have cigna in MoCo.

I'm not sure how much he would get out of PT at 11 and already able to do all these sports. My low tone kids started with PT when little then moved onto OT and then graduated to community activities like tae kwon do and swimming. But you could do a consult and see what the PT says. I'm no PT and I don't know your kid.

[Anonymous]

OP here. The other reason that I am fine driving him around & signing him up many different types of sports because a therapist once tells me that all types of sports (instead of working with adult therapist) are more fun and would help him with core strength and endurance would be built over time. They have recommended me swimming (he insisted it for a few years on & off and now give up because he hates lap swimming with no energy and boring) and tae kwon do (he did not even want to try it) which are the best sports for low muscle tone kids. I have not seen the endurance built up yet, maybe it needs more time. I want him to do track, and he does not even want to consider it. I don't know what PT can help him because he can run, climb and swim, maybe except they can teach him how to bike without training wheels.

[Anonymous]

Is it possible that he is tired and exhausted because he is doing too much and doesn't take enough time to recover between activities?

And this is probably obvious, but just in case you haven't focused on it, is he getting enough sleep and eating enough?

[Anonymous]

Rec sports sound like a good fit for him. They are less stressful and no-cut. He can continue to play as long as he is having a good time. Top Golf is fun but expensive. Let him try fencing, my kid tried it and thought it was fun, he wasn't willing to drop other activities to make the space for fencing.

It is ok for him to tell his coach on a rec team that he is not ready to sub back in if he is feeling like he is not up to it.

[Anonymous]

I think that sounds like too much activity for any kid. Horseback riding is great for core work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. The other reason that I am fine driving him around & signing him up many different types of sports because a therapist once tells me that all types of sports (instead of working with adult therapist) are more fun and would help him with core strength and endurance would be built over time. They have recommended me swimming (he insisted it for a few years on & off and now give up because he hates lap swimming with no energy and boring) and tae kwon do (he did not even want to try it) which are the best sports for low muscle tone kids. I have not seen the endurance built up yet, maybe it needs more time. I want him to do track, and he does not even want to consider it. I don't know what PT can help him because he can run, climb and swim, maybe except they can teach him how to bike without training wheels.

My kid did PT. They did take insurance. They could absolutely teach him to ride a bike as a goal. I’d do it for that alone, but they could also work on ornery goals, like coordination.