There are more autism services in Worcester, Massachusetts and the surrounding area than ever before. With all of these options it can be challenging for autism families to navigate and determine what services are the most suitable for their child. There are specialized schools, recreation programs, social groups and a number of different therapeutic options. Adaptive Exercise offers a unique autism service to the Worcester County area. A specialized exercise service for people with autism and other special needs. In the United States every child must be offered an appropriate education. For people with special needs this often means they received special education or may even have an Individualized Education Plan. Why is that this equality of opportunity is not extended to physical fitness? At Adaptive Exercise we believe that everyone should be able to access the sea of benefits that come with exercise. A person’s disability should not limit their ability to access fitness.
Traditional fitness options are often not suitable for many people with special needs. When a neurotypical person feels motivated and wants to improve their health they can sign up at a local gym, maybe hire a personal trainer or they can even just hop on YouTube to access thousands of free fitness videos. For a person with special needs this may not be as simple. Many people with autism do not do well in loud, crowded environments. I have yet to come across any big box gym that isn’t loud or crowded. Let’s say an individual with autism does not have a history of exercising and needs a personal trainer to teach them. You will be hard pressed to find any personal trainers with experience working with people with autism or other special needs at your local gym. Even worse these chain gyms are not doing anything to make fitness more accessible to this population. There is no emphasis placed on learning how to work with people with special needs. If chain gyms are not appropriate and personal trainers are skilled in working with people with special needs, where does that leave these individuals? It is no surprise that obesity, low muscle tone and motor planning difficulties are more pronounced within the autism community. There are hardly any exercise autism services available in most communities, including Worcester County.
We offer an appropriate solution for autism families looking to improve their health and fitness. Our personal trainers specialize in working with individuals with special needs. Our unique approach to teaching fitness uses a multi-level support system and specialized teaching strategies to best support each client in their fitness journey. Our exercise sessions may look different from what you would see at your local health club. For instance, rather than using metal barbells and dumbbells, we use primarily sand based weights. Equipment like sandbells, and medicine balls allow us to provide resistance in a more safe manner. It is not just the equipment that makes our training different though. Our trainers use modified language in our instruction to account for auditory processing difficulties and receptive language impairments. This means using less words, short clear phrases consisting of the most essential language. This adaptation to our verbal instruction is paired with trainers slowly modeling each exercise. Providing the client with clear instructions throughout each session.
The multi leveled support system, helps our clients master exercise form. In order to exercise safely, using proper form is imperative. As personal trainers we should not progress a client or focus on performance until proper form is mastered. When we applied this standard to our exercise autism services in Worcester we began with physical supports. This intervention was borrowed from experiences in Applied Behavior Analysis. Physical prompting is often used in this field to teach skills. This intervention is designed to be hierarchical so that over time the instructor can fade or apply a more intrusive prompt. Personal trainers can use this physical intervention to guide an individual through the proper mechanics of a movement. Over time as the client improves their accuracy these prompts can be faded. Conversely if the client is not successful at a set level of physical prompting, the trainer can provide a more intrusive prompt. Visual supports are another level of support our trainers provide. This can be done through visual schedules, videos, physical modeling of exercises or markers. Physical modeling is already used in our instruction, so let’s focus on the other visual supports. Videos and mirrors are great tools for pointing out specific things a client is doing accurately or inaccurately. Markers are a great support to make understanding movements easier. We use hand, foot and arrow markers to indicate where to position the body and where/how to move. Schedules are a great tool for beginners who may need to have scheduled breaks throughout their exercise session. They are also valuable in teaching exercise routines for some of our more advanced athletes. Kinesthetic supports are our third level of supports we offer our athletes. These are provided in the form of kinesthetic cues. These cues indicate where or how to move. The trainer can use themselves or objects in the environment to apply kinesthetic cues.
All of these support strategies and our specialized mode of instruction collectively make Adaptive Exercise the most appropriate exercise autism service in Worcester County. There are a number of effective therapies available for people with autism and other special needs. And over the past decade there have been tremendous strides in terms of autism awareness. Being based in Massachusetts, we are fortunate as our state is amongst the leaders in autism services, this is clearly shown throughout Worcester County. There are a number of great ABA service providers, speech language pathologist, occupational therapist, physical therapist and advocates. But, until 2017 there were no exercise specialist for people with autism. As the awareness of the need for exercise services grows, we hope to continue to provide the highest standards of specialized exercise services for the autism population.