At the time of the explosion in PE, we were transitioning from a 504 to an IEP. The PE teacher did come to the meeting, and we explained some of DS's deficits that were in play during some of the activities. Up to this point, we haven't needed PE to be specifically adaptive, as a year of intensive speech and social skills classes have alleviated many of the social issues that were a larger part of the problem for DS than the sensory/physical ones. Currently, we have an agreement that DS can sit out of gym whenever he wants, and we've found this means he sits out about twice a month, which I find totally acceptable. He doesn't WANT to be the kid sitting out, so that helps.
We did have to ask the PE teachers to take him at his word and not try to "see if they can convince" him to do something - if they asked him twice, he wouldn't refuse (he has difficulty wrapping his brain around the difference between disobedience and sticking up for yourself, which I admit is subtle) and would wind up overdoing it and exploding later in the day. The PE teachers had the best of intentions, and usually didn't see the harm done because the meltdown would happen elsewhere.
However, the kid you're describing in your earlier post - I'm that kid. I can tell you, the reason some kids don't "get" PE (I'm not taking it personally - that's exactly it, I didn't "get" it) is that their brain/body connection is completely on manual. I have very little automatic muscle control unless it's something I do every day like walking or breathing or picking something up. If I'm going to learn a new movement, I need to figure out how to move each individual muscle and joint cognitively, by thinking about it - so, modeling (especially only once or twice) doesn't necessarily help. To top it off, I don't process mirror images properly - so someone facing me and modeling something might as well be standing on the other side of a concrete wall for all the information that offers.
So, things to look for that might help: extra explanation broken down much more thoroughly - and probably written out and drawn on paper. Extra time to practice movements. Check and see if your son learns better if he stands next to the gym teacher when she's modeling something, instead of facing her.
Check for sensory issues: is the gym too loud? Not enough space so kids are bumping into him? Is it a visually noisy environment (lots of brightly-colored paintings, for instance?)
Check for social issues: personal space, can he interpret "trash talk" correctly, can he tell the difference between appropriate aggression and when behavior is inappropriate, etc.
Not sure if any of that made sense, but I hope it helps. I do remember that all my life, PE felt like a special level of hell created just for me - so my own son's experience is actually pretty mild in comparison.
10 Nov 2011, 11:09 am
