Fitness Every Day Flow Chart
If you do not think fitness is an essential part of optimal development and lifelong health, skip this. This is a plan for developing and integrating fitness into the home, classroom, fitness, or therapeutic environment. Now here’s the thing; given the vast differences among the autism population with respect to physical abilities, motivation to move, and learning skills, cookie cutter programming approaches just don’t work, nor will they ever. So this “Fitness Every Day” thing is about taking into account how to best consider and deliver who needs what.
Parents. I’ve met a few who are quite proactive with physical activity, understand and benefit from regular physical activity, and want to include their children with autism. Cool. We can totally do that.
Here are the environmental factors:
- Space
- Time
- Equipment
- Participants
Here are the Individual factors:
- Current physical ability
- Current adaptive ability
- Current cognitive ability (with relation to learning style and motor planning)
Here’s your In the Home If/Then Breakdown:
IF you have a little bit of space you can clear out on a regular basis (I’m accustomed to working in some very tight areas and still managing to get some med ball throws going), THEN you can have family fitness fun in the home.
IF you can set aside anywhere from 10-30 minutes each day (you can even break it up into 3-5 minute chunks), THEN you can use the space as a “movement zone” on a regular basis
IF you invest in a couple pieces of highly-adaptable equipment (Dynamax med ball, Sandbells, a couple of cones and low hurdles), THEN you have, at your disposal, a wide array of possibilities for fitness fun.
[1]IF you have a few willing participants (yourself included), THEN you can begin using the aforementioned equipment for fitness and active play each day
Trouble Shooting:
Space
Space issues can be a concern, but creativity and the ability to move furniture can have a delightful effect on accommodating a fitness program. All things toe-stubby, sharp, and just in the way should be, even temporarily, moved aside. This in itself can be part of the fitness program. How fast can family members move an ottoman?
Time
Don’t have a solid 45 minutes to devote each day (or at least a couple days a week)? Chunk it up into 5-10 minute movement segments. One of my favorites was a family who had their kids bear walking into the kitchen for meals. Hungry bear party rules. Chunking time also alleviates some of the issues that occur when kids/teens/young adults find long periods of instruction or other imposed activity aversive.
Equipment
Some of these things you can make yourself from supplies purchased at your local hardware/sand depository/PVC pipe rental facility. I would recommend, if possible, purchasing a few items from the equipment list above. It can all be used at any level of ability, and, treated with slightly less than hyena-grade contempt, will last a very long time.
Participants
Gotta be in to win. No one will do it for you (I will, but only in the Long Island, NY area, and even then time is limited). Home fitness programs ensure that you know what’s going on, when it’s going on, and how it’s going. Other household members can be helpful (and healthy) with active participation. Fitness and active play are usually more fun with others involved. Usually.
Current Physical Ability
What can she/he do right now with regard to different movement patterns? Can they bend, push, pull, throw, catch, crawl, climb, jump? If yes, use the skills they have and begin to progress things (add one movement to another, for example, a bear walk followed by jumps or push throws with a big ball), if there are some movement and/or strength deficits (often the case with the ASD population), regress to the current level of ability. For example:
Rather than jumping forward 2 feet, place spot markers/cones 1 foot away or less. Early success leads to less frustration and more progress, a combination I tend to favor only because it makes sense.
Current Adaptive Ability
No motivation to perform new activities? Start off with very short periods of instruction/activity. Allow for exploration. Scatter some equipment around and see what they gravitate towards. It may be indicative of something that can be reinforcing. Just because something is aversive/wholly unlikable at first, does not mean it will remain that way until the end of time. Steady exposure to new activity builds confidence and familiarity, both of which help to sustain interest over time (i.e., long-term healthy lifestyle).
Current Cognitive Ability
We learn best when taught in a way that coincides with our learning style. Visual cues for more visual learners, kinesthetic cues for those of us who need to feel our way through activity, and, while rarely applicable, auditory learners need to hear instruction. Now with regard to fitness and movement, demonstration is essential. Few, few individuals will know what is expected if you just say “Do five frog hops!” and they’ve never done, seen, heard of them before.
Knowing how many steps, on average, an individual can keep in mind is also important. Giving 3-step directions (pick up the ball, do a push throw, then step over the hurdles) is not going to work for a learner who has difficulty beyond 1 or 2-step sequences. Once they become familiar and fluent with specific exercises, you can progress to activity “chains” that include 
[2]several different movements. This not only promotes greater physical ability, but motor planning and activation in the areas of the brain responsible for short-term memory.
Of course, having discussed the visual aspect of fitness, it would make little sense not to provide a few ideas for exercises and activities that are great for in-home programming. I’ll be putting up a video on my blog (autismfitness.com/blog [3]) with some exercises, along with their progressions and regressions. The goal is to make fitness and active play more understandable and accessible to the autism population, parent, educators, and professionals. With some planning and persistence, fitness becomes fun, and something that can bring us closer together in numerous ways.
[4]
Eric Chessen, M.S., YCS is the creator of the PAC Profile Assessment Toolbox (www.autismfitness.com [5]), PAC Profile Workshop series, and consults with special needs programs around the world. Available on www.autismfitness.com [5]
More Fitness Fun
- Fitness Activities: A Gateway Towards Introducing Social Skills [6]
- The Family Factor of Five: Making Time for Fitness (and Actually Doing It) [7]
- The 7 Habits of Highly Successful Fitness Programs [8]
- 4 Exercise Progressions, 5W’s, and an H [9]
- The Folly of Fitness Focus a User’s Guide [10]
- Fitness Challenge [11]
- Waving Not Drowning: The Process of Making Fitness Fun [12]
- Five Fitness Facts for a Fitter Fall [13]
- Fitness Fun: Incorporating Fitness into the Classroom [14]
- Looking for a Fun Family Exercise? How About Parkour! [15]
Visit us at: www.facebook.com [16]
This post originally appeared on our January/February 2014 Magazine [17]