Martial arts and the ASD kid

Post Reply New Topic

I find this a challenge as well. My daughter has been going to drama classes for about a year. A few times, the teacher has told us that she never participated at all and I don't think she was getting much out of it. We had to re-enrol by Sunday and I put it off until we were absolutely certain. I told her that we were considering not taking her back and she was a little bit whiny, but I don't think she was too bothered. I asked her why she wanted to go back and she said things like: 'I like the church' - it's in a church hall. She never mentioned the lessons or kids that she might miss.

Anyway, she's starting an athletics class instead. She really loves to run and wants to join the local running club, but needs to be 8yrs. But the fact that she loves to do something isn't always that significant when it comes to classes. I've got my fingers crossed.

There are 2 things she does which have been a great success - swimming lessons and a singing workshop. I believe the singing works so well purely because of the amazing teachers and the way they deal with kids who are a little bit different.

I'm high functioning autistic and I take karate. I find it's been really good for two things - improving my motor skills (Dad says I don't run into things as much) and making me more confident that I can defend myself (I volunteer with disabled kids and some of them can be aggressive, now I know how to keep them from hurting me without hurting them either).

Some advice:

* You really need the right dojo. My first dojo the senseis had no understanding of autism and thought because I was young and fit-looking I should be able to progress at the usual rate, plus they didn't understand why some things were easy and others difficult because they were used to their white belts being out-of-shape people with good motor planning skills. Best is if there's already a disabled person in the dojo and they're doing well - my second dojo had an autistic yellow belt in it when I started, so my sensei knew how to be accomodating of disabilities.

* They won't teach how to do warm-up activities such as push-ups, so you may want to tell your child how to do them or if he can't do them ask if he can do a different activity instead. For some reason I cannot do push-ups, so I do sit-ups or plank instead.

* I've found I need more explanation than usual. I suck at imitating others, so I need to compensate by getting detailed instruction on everything. Martial arts are better at explaining how to do motor skills than other sports tend to be, but sometimes I still need a bit more explanation. One particular difference is that most people seem to be able to learn something right-handed, do it a few times, and then switch hands with no further instruction, whereas I need it re-explained when I do it the other way.

* Due to hypermobility, sometimes I'll do a movement improperly in a way that most people are incapable of doing. For example, with a roundhouse kick, your leg starts out towards the side and you swivel your support leg while kicking out. I would keep my foot firmly planted and instead rotate my leg in my hip to kick, which caused hip pain and sometimes put my hip out of joint. The senseis didn't catch this because most people can't actually do this. If your kid is extremely flexible and he complains of joint pain with some of the activities, check if he might be doing something with his joint that most people shouldn't be capable of doing.

Had my son try Taikwondo. I checked with the instructors and one had experience with disabled kids. A lot of these places are very interested in getting students as they make good money on them and will spend extra time with them. I noticed the method of these places is to move the kid along which keeps the kids interested as they have the reward of getting higher belts. As they get closer to a black belt, it is harder and learning the forms is difficult. My son is hearing impaired as well as autistic and it was difficult for him to hear the instructions in the class. They were willing to spend extra time with him to help him through it. He also had his younger sister doing it as well and so that provided him some extra support. We had to deal with some sensory issues involving the equipment but not too bad. He made it through the black belt stage which really wasn't all that difficult or as accomplished as it sounds but it was a great achievement for him.

My wife, me and the teachers working with him at school all felt that the experience helped him with confidence, patience, determination and more discipline.

Make sure you take him to his lessons, because even if he does enjoy them now, the obsession will eventually blow over and he will need to be forced to stick to it.
I found it impossible to learn drills from watching the entire group, make sure they try to teach him basics that they assume you can catch by watching the group. Like somebody else mentioned push-up and stretching. To even more things like keeping you mid-body weight balanced, and back-straight.
Many basics I did not learn in the more hard-type martial arts. When I took a Tai Chi it masters and specifically teaches many of the basics other martial arts just assume you can figure out on your own. Especially balancing your body.

My son is 5 and I take him to a kids yoga class at our local YMCA. He LOOOOVES it. He seems so centered when he's done. Like, all of his sensory stuff seems to be better on the days that he goes there first. And, he has gained a lot of confidence because he really likes to imitate movement. By chance, the teacher of the yoga class used to be a special ed teacher and knows a lot about Asperger's.

He also started TAe Kwon Do at the Y a few weeks ago. After the first week, he decided he didn't want to go. It turned out that he was feeling like he couldn't do it well because the Master played a game with them where he wanted them to TRY to catch a ball, full knowing that there was no way they could do it. It was just an exercise in staying alert. I spent some time talking to the instructor and he explained that game to me as well as explained how kids may feel "under fire" when they first start the class. This is because there are a lot of rules and kids will be corrected. So, in the beginning, they are being corrected a lot. My son, the rule follower, had a hard time feeling like he couldn't follow the rules.

After my talk with the instructor, I explained this all to my son and he is really enjoying it again. Funny, though, I told him how the ball game worked and that if he looks around, he'll see that no one is catching the ball, his reply was. "Then why does he TELL us to catch the ball, then?" Good point, son!! He was relieved to hear, though, that he will learn the rules and know exactly what to do after he learns the basics.

I also decided when I was talking with the instructor to let him know that he has Asperger's. HE said that he hadn't picked up on that when he had met my son, so he was happy I told him. And, in talking to him, I can tell that he understands some things about dealing with kids on the spectrum.

An