S/O - Sports or work-outs for families with SN kids

[Anonymous]

This is a bit of a spin-off from another thread. What sports or physical activities work well for your SN child? Alternatively, what sports or physical activities can your SN child do with you or your spouse to fill the need for a work-out?

My typical kids love sports, but some of the sports they love don't work very well for my SN child (team sports such as soccer and baseball come to mind). Team sports involve some intuitive communication skills under pressure (which would be great for my SN child to practice, but I don't want DC to be on a team and then never get to play because other players resent DC's performance).

I've done Daily Burn myself, for the Cardio Fit workouts, but maybe the yoga workouts would be a good thing to do with my SN child. Swimming seems to be good. Skating is fun, but we like the outdoor rink at Canal Park, and it's not available this time of year. I've heard people mention horse-back riding, but that sounds expensive and not exactly convenient.

Anyone have anything good that works for them?

[Anonymous]

Tennis. It's only one other person but still social. Works well for my DS.

[Anonymous]

My son has tried ballet, yoga, gym, karate, swimming.
Truthfully, he doesn't like any sports.
What he does like is family biking time, hiking or swimming with friends. Operative word being socializing with people he already likes, not people he's thrown together with randomly during class.

[Anonymous]

Most individual sports work well: gymnastics, Karate, swim, fencing. For swim, there are some summer teams that you don't have to compete on. My child did not compete this year.

[Anonymous]

It depends on your child's SN's. My SN kid does really well with a team sport, because it plays to his strengths, but it sounds like your kid has different strengths and weaknesses from mine.

Tell us about your kid, and we can give better suggestions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends on your child's SN's. My SN kid does really well with a team sport, because it plays to his strengths, but it sounds like your kid has different strengths and weaknesses from mine.

Tell us about your kid, and we can give better suggestions.

I think the OP was pretty descriptive as to why certain team sports don't work well for her kid.

I've known SN kids who fence, run track, swim on a team, hike with their families.

[Anonymous]

You really need to give more info about "SN" here.

There are groups I could recommend, but they are about physical disabilities. I don't know if they are right for your SN kid and your family.

My child does therapeutic riding. There's also ballet for special needs kids, there's ice hockey for special needs kids, there's KEEN which does a lot of athletics with SN kids; there's a group out of Baltimore that bike rides together. There's groups that do marathons pushing special needs kids. There's groups that do running with special needs kids.

Special Needs is a very broad term. At least tell us whether this is a physical disability, an attentional problem, a problem with socializing, fitting in, attitude -- what realm? I don't want to recommend Special Olympics when that's obviously not right for your child.

[Anonymous]

For at home workouts we have used several from this website. You can connect a computer to a tv and watch the examples. It is all free.

https://www.acefitness.org/acefit/fitness_programs_core_workout.aspx?workoutid=13

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends on your child's SN's. My SN kid does really well with a team sport, because it plays to his strengths, but it sounds like your kid has different strengths and weaknesses from mine.

Tell us about your kid, and we can give better suggestions.

This is OP. Actually, I wasn't thinking specifically about my DC, but about SN children in general. Somebody mentioned on a thread something about one parent wanting to do a workout and it cutting into the time when the other parent needed some relief. So, it just got me to thinking about more activities that would engage an SN child. Since all children are different I was just sort of leading with what might make sense for us. I thought it might be a useful line of conversation.

[Anonymous]

My SN son is involved in gymnastics and Tae Kwon Do. He also really loves hiking, cycling and running. He will do an occasional 5k. He's 14 now and has been in TKD since he was about 5 and gymnastics since he was 8. He never had an interest in team sports so I don't know how he'd do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My SN son is involved in gymnastics and Tae Kwon Do. He also really loves hiking, cycling and running. He will do an occasional 5k. He's 14 now and has been in TKD since he was about 5 and gymnastics since he was 8. He never had an interest in team sports so I don't know how he'd do.

Thanks for starting this thread, op--really helpful as we're trying to decide on sports activities for DS for coming year. I think DS would really enjoy running--has anyone had experience with the various running clubs for kids in Fairfax county? Would welcome recommendations for clubs that have been welcoming to other SN kids (DS is ASD/ADHD, for reference).

[Anonymous]

My HFA child does Tae Kwon Do. He loves it. However, he was having issues with the fabric of the uniform, so the teacher allows him to wear gym shorts and a t shirt with his belt over the waist. I don't know if every studio would be so understanding, but works great for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My SN son is involved in gymnastics and Tae Kwon Do. He also really loves hiking, cycling and running. He will do an occasional 5k. He's 14 now and has been in TKD since he was about 5 and gymnastics since he was 8. He never had an interest in team sports so I don't know how he'd do.

Thanks for starting this thread, op--really helpful as we're trying to decide on sports activities for DS for coming year. I think DS would really enjoy running--has anyone had experience with the various running clubs for kids in Fairfax county? Would welcome recommendations for clubs that have been welcoming to other SN kids (DS is ASD/ADHD, for reference).

PP here. We haven't tried running clubs. But we have found that some of the 5k fund raiser races have training runs in the months leading up to the race.

[Anonymous]

MY SN son loves gymnastics and he has really improved. It's an individual sport which is much better for him than team sports - he can progress or not at his own level and it's a full body work out.

[Anonymous]

Keen, Fun Bunch soccer, Sports Plus--some of these allow siblings to participate, some are free.