[blindkid] PE in middle school

[Kim Gulf Images]

Julie,
You might want to ask the APE instructor to work on concepts of basketball, baseball, football, and soccer during the year. She may not want to play these sports, however this knowledge will support her becoming more social with her peers. Kids are always talking about sports teams. The instructor could help her explore the fields, explain rules, and use tactile graphics to show positions, etc. Our experience with PE class wasn't good either. My daughter sat most of the time and no one bothered to help with concepts of the activities. She had a great APE teacher for two years. The best thing he did was give her self-confidence in her abilities. He found what she was good at and what her strengths were. Of course all good things come to an end, and she ended up with an APE who asked her to walk the track for the period - boring!
When my daughter was young, we always used PE time for her O&M lesson (one day a week). I have heard of others doing the same. I also think it would be a great goal for her to completely dress out by the end of the year. The APE teacher and PT or OT could work together on this goal. 
I remember these years as being extremely hard for me to figure out. Hang in their! We are here to help. 
Kim Cunningham 

Sent from my iPad

On Mar 12, 2013, at 11:34 AM, Julie Yanez <jyanez112 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
> My daughter will be going into middle school next year and physical
> education will be one of the courses. I have a few concerns that I know
> will be brought up in our next IEP in a few weeks.
> 1. Will she be required to dress into PE clothes?
> Right now she has lots of difficulty dressing herself. Pants, socks and
> shoes are easy. Its the upper half she can't accomplish yet. She doesn't
> have the muscle structure to do certain things and still had difficulty
> with muscle isolation. Her Dr thinks it's just part of being extremely
> premee and her being underweight.
> I am also NOT ok with someone assisting her to dress out. She will be in
> APE. Is not dressing out a reasonable request for her APE in her IEP?
> 
> If she is required to change in some way such as just shoes, what type of
> lock might be easiest to start off with?  I don't know how to modify a
> combination lock for her, and like I said, she hasn't been able to isolate
> fingers well. So getting a key in a lock is very very difficult for her. We
> have tried for so long already.
> 
> What are some things I need to know before we start PE in middle school so
> I can bring up to her IEP team?
> 
> Thank you all in advance. I need to get this all figured out before the
> meeting and before the year starts and we find things out the hard way.
> ~Julie.
> _______________________________________________
> blindkid mailing list
> blindkid at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for blindkid:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindkid_nfbnet.org/kim%40gulfimagesphoto.com