Welcome to the exercise connection workout series
brought to you in part by NCHPAD. We are excited here
to show you and demonstrate many different types of videos
how to improve the the lives of individuals with autism
through exercise my name is
David Geslak. And my name is Ashley
Palamino. And my background is
I've been working with children with autism and other special needs for about the
last 10 years
I've been a paraprofessional educated and taught
in school for children with autism and now we have
also trained individuals and organizations throughout the world
including the Cairo Egypt Dubai and Barbados
I actually
studied my undergraduate degree and psychology in Kinesiology
I also worked as a paraeducator while working on a master's degree in special
education
and I'm currently the director of programs with exercise connection
Ashley and I want to begin by teaching you the five standards of the
exercise connection protocol. The first standard is to teach the five components
The second standard is to use a visual exercise system
the third standard is to build relationships
the fourth standard is to include a structured environment
and also to apply in a cross curriculum setting. The first standard
that Ashley mentioned was teaching the five components
the five components are body image
posture, motor coordination
muscular fitness cardiovascular fitness
and within our visual exercise system
we have a bonus component which is abdominal strength
now the reason that we use these five components
are we've seen over the years that these are areas of the body
and movements that are weak for individuals with autism
and other disabilities however
as you see us go through these exercises in the
videos you're gonna notice that you can do these with
all children all adults all ages
and abilities now Ashley, the visual exercise system
can you explain a little bit about why it's important to use
the exercise system? Absolutely we have
in the visual exercise system, we have large visuals
and we also have the smaller visuals
the larger visuals helps take the verbal command out of the request
that you would like the individual to do for exercise
with the smaller visuals it provides more of a individualized structure
and program for them to follow before, during and after exercise
Awesome and one of the things that we've been working on for about the last year at the
exercise connection is our iPad app
which is known as the visual exercise
So Ashley why
did we start to develop an iPad app. The
iPad app is a good gateway to
professionals whether they are in the general education teachers
special education teachers or adaptive PE teachers the use of technology within
your classroom
allows not only for the engagement but also increased participation
with individuals diagnosed with a disability but
also all students within the classroom. Great
so you're gonna see you again through these videos you're gonna see us use
a lot of the big and large visuals we're gonna talk more about the iPad
and a very important standard
visual supports are key to helping our children on the autism spectrum learn
so please please always use visuals it you don't take
anything from our videos visuals visuals visuals
we talked in the third standard about building relationships
can you expand on that a little bit? The
building relationships is very key went
educators, the adaptive PE teachers
general and special ed, but also building communication and that
relationship with paraeducator as well
that collaboration and that support between both of them
will help build that relationship with the students and no students won't be
able to build relationships with each other
awesome and one other thing that we're seeing through research is that
when you have a student or a peer
or teacher that is more engaged with the students
there's research to show that these children will have
increase social skills and
better learning and that's just by your behaviors
as an educator or a leader no matter what if it's not exercising teacher, maybe it's a
speech or lesson plan and
something like social studies or something like that
that can help your child so remember that when you work with these kids
they
feed you and they need your motivation you need to be real and you need to be genuine
because they understand the difference, I promise you, whether they're verbal or nonverbal
please build that relationship. The fourth standard that Ashley mentioned
was include a structured environment
Ashley can you talk about that? The structured environment
as a special education teacher we have in a literacy
room a math classroom, social studies, science classroom
that our individuals have tasks that they need to complete
in a very timely manner those tasks are very structured
engaging that same type of structure
also needs to be applied to a physical education standpoint
Got it. So what Ashley is saying and what
we're trying to explain to you watching is that
think of a to do list but you have
when you wake up in the morning and it's the same thing for our children or
adults that we're working with
so if you enter a physical activity environment
you may be right circle meaning circle warm up
then we're gonna do an exercise then we're going to do a cardiovascular activity
they were gonna do yoga and then we'll be all done
This can visually help them it's structured
and as we mentioned earlier you may pair that with a visual
but that is where we see and we know that these children
thrive and where you can build their confidence self-esteem
in physical activity the fifth and final standard
is apply in cross curriculum so can you explain that?
Applying in a cross curriculum setting can happen
every day whether it's a sensory break, whether it's through
games and activities, whether you're reviewing for a test
providing those activities and those sensory breaks
allows individuals that structure, also that support that is needed
in order for them to understand the content and the material that's being delivered
that day
so when you say sensory break are you saying instead of
let's say giving a child a ball is just to hold you
what you're saying is that we can pick a large gross motor activity
to give them a break and then they can go back to their
routine that they're doing in a classroom? Absolutely. Awesome
So if you guys have questions
if you have comments please contact us at the exercise contention
or at NCHPAD. We are here to help
and help you become better educators of physical activity
for your students adult and children and remember
always challenge autism with exercise
enjoy the shows