The purpose of these videos is to provide you with some general ideas on how to adapt health promotion programs to be inclusive of children and youth with disability. The videos include adaptation ideas for the programmatic environment, skills, and equipment to promote physical activity in afterschool programs.
The environment in which students participate must be safe, secure, and welcoming. Padding, handholds, and adaptive equipment should be readily available. The playing field must be clearly defined. The use of taped or painted areas makes it easier for the student to see boundaries. Create a safe place for the students and make sure the students know how to find it. This video gives you easy, creative ways to adapt your environment.
Click here to watch the Adapting the Afterschool Environment video on YouTube.
To create appropriate adaptations for different skills, teachers should consider making changes to the movement form, instruction, rules, equipment, and environment. One of the simplest ways of adapting an activity is to modify or substitute the skills involved. Teachers may modify skills by modeling what the student is expected to do. Instructions may be printed out in large print and hung up for the student to see during the time of the lesson. Oral prompts can be given. Rules can be “relaxed” to allow the student to achieve the desired goal. If for instance, the students are to kick a ball into a net from 10 feet away, a student with a disability may need to get closer to be able to kick or throw the ball into the net. Time requirements and “outs” may be eliminated. Look at our EveryBODY Plays Afterschool video and discover two games that are easy and inclusive to play during afterschool programs.
Click here to watch the Adapting Afterschool Equipment video on YouTube.
Try these ideas and use your creativity to come up with new ways to adapt and modify your program activities to include all students. If unsure on how to adapt or modify a certain activity, simply ask for the student’s input. The student might have great adaptation ideas that can benefit multiple students.
Published: 12/7/20