The COVID pandemic has impacted all of our lives, but this impact has made even more profound of an impact for individuals with special needs and their families. Many of these individuals receive different therapies, in home services or may go to special schools. With many of these services currently unavailable, the autism families of Massachusetts have been left with little to no support. While some of these individuals have been offered virtual services, this option is not appropriate for everyone with special needs. Adaptive Exercise first shifted towards offering virtual exercise services so that families would still have access to services throughout the shut down. This mode of personal training may not be appropriate for all individuals with special needs, but for those who were proficient in following verbal and visual instruction, it can be very successful. While a few agencies have resumed offering Autism Therapy to Worcester County, many families are still left without services. Adaptive Exercise has resumed offering our exercise Autism Therapy to Worcester County, in accordance with the Governors orders for each phase. Our trainers are equipped with and wear a mask and gloves during and throughout each session. Each client has been assigned their own set of sand bells, markers and other exercise equipment. All equipment is sanitized following the end of each session. Our sessions are offered to families outdoors, either at their home or at a predetermined location. Trainers maintain social distancing of 6 feet, as much as possible through each session. While we strongly encourage our clients to wear a mask for their session, we understand that not every individual with special needs is able to wear a mask. However, family members are encouraged to wear mask in the presence of our trainers. These precautions allow our personal trainers to offer exercise autism therapy to Worcester County, at a time that is more needed than ever.
While every family’s situation is unique, we understand that some families may not be willing to begin services at this time. Adaptive Exercise also understands that there are many autism families that need services. Exercise can boost the immune system, and contributes to overall physical and mental health. Which is why, we have worked diligently to create the safest possible practices for our trainers and their clients. No one should be left without the opportunity to improve their health through exercise. And this right has never seemed as important as it is now.
How do all these changes impact the actual exercise autism therapy in Worcester County? While wearing gloves, masks and adding space between the client and trainer is not ideal, we can still provide effective specialized personal training. When developing our virtual training, we focused on what our trainers could do to support their clients. They could still use modified verbal instruction, physically model movements and use kinesthetic cueing. We focused on prioritizing these added supports in our autism therapy in Worcester County. However, in the context of an in-home or outdoor exercise session, trainers can use a wider variety of visual supports and kinesthetic cues. Spot markers, hand markers and foot markers can be used to help clearly explain exercises. The trainer can also use their immediate environment as kinesthetic cues throughout their training. For instance a trainer working on teaching push movements, can use things like a wall to cue a movement. The trainer might position a spot marker arms length away from a wall and instruct the client to stand on the marker and push out till their hands meet the wall. This way the trainer can maintain social distancing while still adding supports for their client. The trainer can also utilize the spot, hand and foot markers while modeling exercises for their clients. This set a clear expectation of what the client will be doing, Modified verbal instruction, using less lengthy language also helps our clients process our instructions more easily. All of these supports can make exercise easier for our clients, while keeping a safe social distance.
While these kinesthetic cues, modified verbal instruction and visual supports are great added supports, some individuals simply need a more hands on approach to effectively learn exercises. Our trainers may still intervene with physical prompting, but are advised to use this support sparingly. If a client requires physical prompting to perform a squat, the trainer might try and regress the exercise to a more simple movement the client can perform without physical prompting. If physical prompting is absolutely necessary it should still be utilized, because as adaptive personal trainers we are responsible for the safety of our clients. If the client is performing unsafe movements they are at a greater risk for injury and intervention is necessary. Trainers will provide their client with physical prompting then move back to a safe social distance.
For those autism families who are unwilling to begin in person autism therapy in Worcester county, we still offer virtual exercise training online. All of these changes to our policies and services are meant to offer the safest possible autism exercise services. While the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we live, and offer services, we strongly believe that everyone should have the opportunity to exercise. Exercise is not only essential for our physical health, but it can be extremely beneficial to people’s mental health as well. With added stressors of the uncertainty and constant changes from the corona virus, many of us need these mental benefits more than ever. While we hope that these changes are not long lasting, we are prepared to continue finding ways to deliver the safest exercise practices for people with special needs. Gyms and fitness facilities may finally be open again in Massachusetts, but due to limitations to how many people are allowed in a facility at a given time it is even more difficult for people with special needs to access fitness. Our exercise services are uniquely equipped to handle this situation because we are in home and understand the needs of our clients.