[blindkid] PE for blind student

Sally Thomas seacknit at gmail.com
Wed Sep 9 20:21:43 UTC 2009


I've found that David's PE experience depended largely on the teacher/APE 
teacher.  In elementary school things weren't great--his APE teacher ran him 
into the frame of a soccer goal and the regular PE teachers were 
indifferent.  His middle school PE teacher was great and found ways to 
include him.  I think that she did a lot of the "assisting" but David didn't 
end up feeling excluded.

I don't think that really young kids make great helpers because they just 
don't know what to do.  I think that adapting the activity is more 
productive than having a child tote your child around.  That said, I guess I 
didn't worry too much about PE, we've tried to find other ways to keep David 
active.  We just got a really nice tandem bike so that father and son can 
both get some exercise!

Sally Thomas
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Carrie Gilmer" <carrie.gilmer at gmail.com>
To: "'NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)'" 
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 09, 2009 8:52 AM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] PE for blind student


> Dear Joy,
>
> Next to getting Braille, PE was our largest nightmare in elementary 
> school.
> The PE teacher was generally a poor teacher for ANYONE and she never "got
> it"...in fifth grade after countless meetings and teaching Jordan since
> first grade she sent him to the nurses office during a ball toss game once
> "so he would not get hurt in class"...we had a host of
> options/accommodations written into the IEP and a part-time full adaptive 
> PE
> teacher every other class...but his idea of inclusion was to stop the 
> entire
> game and hand Jordan the ball.
>
>
>
> that said, he did not take any PE in middle school-(long story, but we
> waived it cuz he was on YMCA swim team and other after school sports and 
> he
> needed that time to get Braille/tech instruction AND cuz they were so
> horrible at adapting in elementary we did not want to hassle with it
> anymore), in high school we tried it again. There he had a WONDERFUL para
> who was trained in adaptive PE, the guy would try out various adaptations
> with Jordan and they would agree on what would work, sometimes they made
> stuff up after experimenting--he would even search stores for various; the
> reg ed PE teacher was awesome and the other kids too so they did not mind 
> a
> larger/softer/colored or beeping ball or calling out (So Jordan could 
> orient
> by sound) or whatever was used. Sometimes the adaptive PE para was his
> partner in say ping pong or sometimes another student was and was 
> agreeable
> to adaptations.
>
>
>
> This should be in her IEP. Jordan used his cane for running and oriented 
> to
> follow. The overuse of other students as guides carries a host of problems
> in both her own independent participation and it is social death.
>
>
>
> You can mix pull-out with reg participation depending on the activity. It
> was also in his IEP (and actually worked in high school) to get the full 
> PE
> curriculum ahead of time and to write options and some known specifics 
> into
> the IEP, we tried to get accommodations ahead of time. You don't want to 
> be
> figuring out volleyball during class for example. Pull out and reg were
> mixed in the IEP language "as needed and as agreed upon by activity 
> between
> the teacher, us and Jordan". Pull out was often even just for ten minutes 
> of
> a class sometimes to sort out and experiment...it worked well with people
> who WANTED to really engage him independently.
>
>
>
> There was an excellent very extensive Future Reflections special issue on 
> PE
>
> Download it...you can incorporate that into the IEP. They might welcome 
> the
> ideas, likely they just do not know what to do.
>
>
>
>
>
> Carrie Gilmer
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Joy Orton
> Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2009 8:54 PM
> To: blindkid at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [blindkid] PE for blind student
>
>
>
> Last week our daughter Ahbee, age 9, grade 3, came home with a problem in
>
> her physical education class (PE). She said that the kids who were helping
>
> guide her around were passing her off. In other words, one student was 
> tired
>
> of helping her, so he or she asked someone else to help her.  Ahbee's
>
> concern was that people were getting tired of her, and she was feeling
>
> rejected.
>
>
>
> I am concerned about the social problem of feeling rejected, but also 
> about
>
> the other issues raised. Why does she need someone to lead her around in 
> PE?
>
> She has excellent cane skills and can walk independently in and out of
>
> school. She has no other disabilities or delays in addition to her
>
> blindness.
>
>
>
> I called the TVI, the O&M teacher, and the adaptive PE teacher. The 
> adaptive
>
> PE teacher met with the PE teacher and Ahbee the same day I talked to her.
>
> They concluded that the PE teacher will designate three or four people 
> each
>
> day to be Ahbee's helpers. The TVI told me that last year when the beeping
>
> balls were collected at the end of school, they were covered in dust. Hmm.
>
>
>
> My questions:
>
> 1. To other parents and teachers: Does this seem like an appropriate
>
> situation? How can I tell?
>
> 2. What activities do other blind children have in PE? Do they participate
>
> with sighted classmates in regular class or have a special pulled out PE
>
> time?
>
> 3. Anyone else have peer students acting as guides for their blind 
> student?
>
> How much of the time? How well does it work?
>
> 4. What can I ask for? What would be the wording for the IEP?
>
>
>
> Thanks in advance for your feedback.
>
> Joy Orton
>
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