Rapport is a critical component of any therapy, but perhaps this aspect of therapy is even more important in regards to autism exercise, personal training. The client, personal trainer relationship is one built on trust and communication. As adaptive personal trainers, we work closely with our clients, often taking a hands-on approach, utilizing physical prompting. This type of close work requires a lot of trust and understanding of what is happening. A large percentage of the clients we work with have no prior experience with a personal trainer or structured exercise curriculums. This is why we must explain our role, what we are trying to accomplish, establish an effective line of communication and make the process as fun as possible.
Establishing rapport is a responsibility that falls solely on the personal trainer. Personal training in the field of autism exercise is unique in that often the client you are working with did not seek out your support. Often times a client’s parents or guardian Will be responsible for them starting an exercise program. Regardless, the personal trainer must form a connection with their client that elicits motivation and trust. This should be the primary focus early in the training process. A personal trainer who has not established a strong sense of rapport with their client is far less likely to be successful in teaching them exercises or being engaged in their exercise training. Try and think of this from an outside perspective. Would you be motivated to work with a stranger to learn new skills if you did not know what exactly you were trying to learn? The answer is most likely no. As personal trainers teaching autism exercise we must be conscious of this when we are implementing our training processes.
Building rapport can be far more difficult when it comes to autism exercise, personal training versus traditional personal training. This is because we are working with clients could present a wide range of different abilities. Do to their Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis there are most likely social and communicative impairments. In the case of working with clients who are nonverbal or extremely limited verbally, trainers must find unique ways to build rapport. This may include but is not limited to finding out what the client is interested in, lots of positive reinforcement, creating fun activities and modifying the language used within the session. Even clients who are verbal may still struggle with receptive language. This is important for personal trainers to be aware of. Language is one of the primary means of establishing rapport, in the case of adaptive personal training, trainers must alter the way they’re communicating. This may mean producing the amount of language used within session, pairing your language with visuals or modeling exercises, while giving a verbal instruction.
Letting your clients know why you are exercising and what it means can go overlooked. But it is important to remember that many of our clients are not seeking out personal trainers on their own. Often times it is their parents or guardians who are enrolling them in an exercise program. This is something I like to focus on within the first few sessions of working with a client. This starts with introducing yourself and letting the client know your name and what you do. This sounds very simple, but without this introduction the client may not understand who you are or why you are having them do these strange, unfamiliar activities. This introduction can be made more clear through the use of social stories. I like to focus on using simple language to explain that I am a personal trainer and as a personal trainer I help to teach people how to exercise and be healthy. Now that the client has a better understanding of who you are and why you were there you can begin to work on building a relationship.
Building a relationship with your client is important if you want them to enjoy, or even tolerate your exercise instruction. Prior to beginning your first session with client, I like to collect as much information as possible. I will ask the parent or guardian about prior experiences with exercise, hobbies, reinforcers, their communicative abilities, any modifications they might have in other settings for them to be successful, and their dislikes. Knowing what your clients find a aversive can be just as important is what they find reinforcing. For some clients physical prompting, or the hands on approach maybe aversive. For others talking a lot, or loud noises can be an issue. Regardless of what that client dislikes, the trainer should learn this information and you their best to avoid putting them in these situations early in the training process.
Autism exercise, personal training is requires as much intensive attention to details as other therapies. We must have a clear understanding of our clients’ abilities, comprehension, learning styles and what they find aversive. A speech language pathologist or board certified behavior analyst does not begin to build an individuals program without taking these factors into consideration, so why should we?
Rapport is not something that should be neglected once it is formed. Strong rapport requires constant attention and effort from the personal trainer. Autism exercise, personal training is not a quick process, this is why as a trainer you need to continuously focus on maintaining rapport. Sure there are times of frustration where the client may feel overwhelmed or uncapable, but it is our job to assist them. I like to give tons of positive reinforcement for successfully completing or even attempting exercises. Providing breaks of moving to easier, already mastered exercises during these times of frustration can make all the difference.
Every personal trainer has their own specific strategies they use to build rapport with their clients. Regardless of what you choose to do, you must be aware of your client, trainer relationship. Remember to try and think from their perspective. Would I trust myself (the trainer) if I were in their shoes?