What you need to know
Exercise is important and should be encouraged. Eligibility for competitive spots should be determined by a cardiologist.
Gross motor skills
- Coordination may be a problem and make individuals a target for teasing
- Practice can help
- Hand-eye coordination is often poor
May do better with individual sports vs. team sports
- Swimming
- Dance
- Gymnastics
- Track and Field
Lack of stamina and energy levels can be a problem
- Individuals may not know how to pace themselves or when to rest
Field Trips
- May have trouble dealing with unexpected changes in routines
If you live in New England (USA) and qualify, Northeast Passage offers Therapeutic Recreation and Adaptive Sports programming.
What you can do
- Encourage practicing to help with coordination
- Help the child learn to pace herself
- For a field trip, give a warning and description of what will happen
- Review step-by-step exactly what she'll need to do
- Arrange for a buddy or assign an aide or chaperone
- Provide a list of activities so the child will know what is going on and can be prepared