Will ice skating be good for him?

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My nearly 5 year old son is a HFA. he does enjoy spinning around, and I thought I should use this, and maybe introduce him to ice skating, where he could use his spinning techniques. Does anyone have any knowledge on this or any ideas if this would be a suitable sport for him?

I don't think ice skating is the safest outlet for a spinning obsession. Many people with autism/AS have poor motor coordination. Falling down on ice HURTS and spinning on ice skates is pretty advanced. He could seriously hurt himself (broken bones, hitting limbs/head/face on ice, etc.)

Spinning might be a bit advanced for a 5 year old. I wasn't diagnosed until I was 55 but...
I remember my dad taking us skating even at an early age and I eventually coached High School hockey.

So I see nothing wrong with having him try it, just keep in mind AS folks are the same folks who trip UP the stairs, so he may get a bit frustrated at first.

Yeeaaahh...I wouldn't expect someone with Autism to be too good at ice skating (especially at 5yo), and not only is falling on ice physically painful, we spend enough of our lives experiencing abject humiliation without egging it on by putting our lack of grace on display. I couldn't even hit a baseball as a kid, much less spin around on ice skates.

Maybe I'm taking you too literally, but "his spinning techniques" (emphasis on his) aren't likely to be adaptable to ice, where you have a minimal amount of contact area with the surface and virtually frictionless motion in two directions--it is a learned skill.

If he wants to learn to skate and is willing to listen to instruction, start slow, not get frustrated by mistakes (read, falls), and practice a lot, then by all means find a patient instructor with a calm manner and let him try a few lessons.

If he's just going to go out on the ice and do whatever he wants to do (spin?), he's probably going to get badly hurt and you'd be better off just letting him spin in the yard.

And bear in mind that ice skating in inherently dangerous. My nephew, who was fairly gifted at other sports, broke his leg the first time he was ever on skates.

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At age 5/whatever (an early age) some children may be interested in tag and hide-and-seek and playing in sandboxes. Regarding gross and fine motor control, some children may have some very subtle challenges involving moving their bodies (which can take months, even years to slowly figure out), for example: - http://www.balametrics.com - http://www.infinity.org - http://www.bal-a-vis.com/ - http://www.out-of-sync-child.com/ - and so on. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii_Fit -
www.hemihelp.org.uk/ - Games like hopskotch, jump rope, tetherball, baseball, etc. can teach children skills when they are old enough to start.

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Yes, I remember reading a How To (understand) book about ADHD Inattentive by C. Thomas Wild which mentioned the trampoline, roller skating, and keeping an even beat to music by tapping the foot to be a challenge. It took Wild decades to slowly figure out what was behind a lot of it (not all of it - which was a complicated feedback circuit which involved the brain stem, the cerebellum, and surrounding areas). He was lucky to find three FDA approved medicines which caught a part of the challenge (not everything) for ADHD Inattentive, central auditory processing disorder, and mild dyspraxia. He fell down roller skating, had difficulty hitting a baseball (due to a subtle visual perceptual difficulty/imperfect vision), and could not spin around in a simple dance circle. Using the right medicine, for him, temporarily improved small aspects of all these areas (not a cure) so he was able to explain it all in writing for the reader. Wild wrote about the difficulty as a child in trying to fly a gas-powered model airplace with strings around in a 360 degree circle for two minutes or less - an impossible feat for him to achieve due to a lack of sustained attention/inattention, the inability to control gross and fine motor control muscles in his body, and undiagnosed ADHD Inattentive.

Last edited by pgd on 05 Aug 2010, 1:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Ice skating hurts my bum, but he might love it.

I used to zone out nicely when ice skating and roller skating. Falling down on ice hurts more and the cold of the ice can be a bummer sometimes. I liked roller skating better.