Keen

[Anonymous]

Interested for my first grader. Uses a walker and has physical issues. Are there many kids without intellectual disabilities that participate? Thanks for any feedback. I love the idea of a buddy. Tried TOPS soccer but it wasn't a good fit. Didn't really like it. Too hard not being able to run around.

[Anonymous]

DD volunteered with a teen KEEN group for three years. I believe that they all had intellectual disabilities. They did kickball, basketball and bowling mainly.

Just checked the website, and there are photos of kids in wheelchairs, and it says the groups works with kids with both developmental and physical disabilities.

http://www.keengreaterdc.org/

[Anonymous]

I saw it on there. I was just wondering what the current enrollment is like. My child is at JCC for camp for the summer and is the only kid with a disability in her group and the same at school. I would love for my child to have peers that have similar challenges, experiences and not everyone always running around like little kids do and leaving my child behind. Hard being a mom. Glad that kindergarten went well academically.

[Anonymous]

Have you looked into Sportsplus?

[Anonymous]

My child was in KEEN for about six months (meets twice monthly so she went maybe 10 times). She has cerebral palsy and does not walk. Her challenges are physical and she is nonverbal.

I think KEEN is an excellent program but I would not send my child back there or recommend it for any nonverbal child with physical challenges. The volunteers really don't receive any information about the children although I filled out an immense amount of paperwork at the beginning. Each time you go, you get a different volunteer, so it's not as if you can meet and explain your child and go from there.

What I saw was that my child was placed in situations she could not handle physically and she could not say no or stop. For instance, she was placed on her feet and walked around like a doll or baby. The volunteers didn't do this to be cruel; they thought she would enjoy it and it would encourage her to walk. But they had no understanding of disabled kids and the fact that she can't bear weight that way. I would go over and tell them she can't do that, but it happened again and again. They simply had no training or understanding of how physically disabled kids exercise.

So we gave up on Keen. Well meaning but not for us.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your response from the last OP. That is what I'm wondering. My child is verbal but her speech was affected. She had an inflammation in her cerebellum at almost 4 so she had a large vocab before this all happened. It sounds like it is a better program for kids that can run around if the volunteers don't understand how to exercise disabled kids properly. She was the only kid in the soccer program the year we did it with a walker (the youngest group). Her volunteer was great. My child just didn't like it and said please don't sign me up again.