Adaptive Aquatics Physical education Handbook

By: Thomas Williams

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Visual Aids
Instructional Materials: Front Crawl demonstration picture, Back Crawl demonstration picture, Breaststroke demonstration picture, Elementary Backstroke demonstration picture

Purposes for use: These demonstration pictures will help the student learn the different swimming strokes by giving them a precise model of what each stroke looks like when done correctly. They will also aid the student with their physical and motor skills by helping the student understand how to do each skill correctly.

Educational Implications: These visual aids will benefit the students learning ability by showing them exactly what body movements and positioning is needed for each stroke. These aids will also benefit the teacher during instruction; if the teacher is unable to do the techniques correctly they can use the aids to show the student how to do each stroke. For a student with a disability these visual aids can also be very beneficial. If a student is nonverbal or has a low level of cognitive ability they will help describe each stroke easier and more effectively.

Front Crawl

Back Crawl

Breast Stroke

Elementary Back Stroke

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Aquatic Games and Activities

Instructional Materials: Escape Hatch- underwater swimming game to help independent water movement and special awareness. Diving skills lesson- lesson to refine and practice diving skills from edge of pool and surface of water. Purposes for use: These activities are designed to help students of different ages improve or practice their swimming skills. Escape Hatch is made for younger students to help increase very basic swimming skills under water. The diving skills lesson is for older more experienced swimmers that have the balance and coordination to do various dives into the pool well staying safe. Both of these activities will help a students physical and motor skills in the pool. Educational Implications: I feel that both of these activities will benefit student learning by allowing the students to perform their own level and challenge themselves. These activities also help instruction for the teacher because they allow for both one on one time and smaller group activity making it easier to assess each individual student. Sense these activities are geared towards the student ability they also are beneficial for teaching students with disabilities.

Escape hatch (ages 6-8) Materials- hoop for each child Goals- improve underwater swimming, increase special awareness, increase independent water movement How to play- half the group in circle holding a hoop between each person at different levels (some hoops touching the bottom others higher). In the middle of the circle other half of class bobs up and down until instructor says escape hatch. When cue is said all students in the middle swim to nearest hoop and swim through it. Switch hoop holders with swimmers and repeat. Tips- hoop holders can move in a circle during the game Adaptations- if student cannot swim they can walk, jog, or be pulled through the hoop while in a lifejacket. Nonverbal students that cannot swim point to the hoop they want and then try to assist them through.

Diving Skills Lesson Begins front crawl after diving into pool Tread water Surface dive Standing dive slight bent knee Standing dive forceful knee spring Standing dive over noodle Standing dive from low board

Diving for rings In the deep end of a pool throw a number of diving rings or sticks and have student dive in to get them. The students can ether dive right to the bottom or jump in tread water and then dive down to grab them. For younger students this can be done in shallower water by having them bob under water to retrieve the rings.

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Equipment
Instructional Materials: Quad Back Seat- Adapted skiing chair used for students and adults with higher spinal injuries and less upper body strength. Water Walking Assistant- Improves balance and gait by increasing strength. Helps supports the arms and upper body in an upright walking position. Lj-V life jacket- Provides great comfort in the vertical position well keeping the students head above the water. Purposes for use: Well in the pool the Lj-V life jacket will allow the student to interact and move in the pool while staying in an upright position, this will help with balance and walking ability while keeping the head in a fixed safe position. The Water Walking Assistant will also help a student improve balance and walking skills in the pool but instead for a student with high functioning motor ability. Instead of being in a pool the Quad Back Seat can be used in an outdoor adaptive aquatics program. This allows a student with a spinal injury or other physical disabilities to water ski in a seated position. Educational Implications: During an adaptive aquatics class I feel that the Lj-V life jacket would help the student physically by allowing them to stay in an upright position if they are normally unable to do so and move more freely in the water. This in turn would help the teacher by allowing them to ether help other students at the same time or address different skills other than those in a prone position. The Lj-V will also help students with disabilities by keeping their head in a fixed safe position and above the water at all times. Though the Water Walking Assistant will help both the student and teacher in many of the same ways it is able to assist students that are at a higher functioning ability. For a student with a disability the Water Walker Assistant can enable a student recovering from an injury or a student that has more muscular strength. I feel that the Quad Back Seat is able to help the student with learning by giving them a new opportunity and skill that many times they would not have the opportunity to do. It can also provide the teacher with a goal or reward for the students to meet when doing other tasks. The Quad Back Seat will also give students with spinal injuries that are still highly competitive and functioning a chance to try a new and harder skill that they might never seen before.

Quad Back Seat

Water walking assistant

Lj-V Life Jacket

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Useful Resources
Instructional Materials: Simply Swim / USABA / US Paralympics / Adaptive Aquatics / Flag House / Slice / Kittelson Swim School / Swimming with Autism / Adaptive Aquatics Programs / Swimming and Water Safety

Purposes for use: These resources are a combination of books and websites that will help a teacher not only understand the different possibilities for an adapted aquatics program but also find new equipment to aid their students. These resources can help enhance social, physical, motor, cognitive, and/or behavioral skills though the teaching process.

Educational Implications: These resources will benefit student learning and teacher instruction by improving the knowledge of the teacher to more effectively teach each student. By finding new equipment and teaching strategies students can become better swimmers and stay safe in the pool. They will also benefit students with disabilities because by doing research the teacher can find new equipment to allow the student to go in the pool or allow the student to do a wider range of activities in the pool.

Simply Swim Petrilla, G. (2012). Simpley swim: How to swim. Retrieved from http://www.simplyswim.com/docs/HowToSwim.aspx This website provides instructions and cues on how to perform a front crawl, back crawl, and breast stroke. It also provides pictures of each stroke at different points throughout the stroke help with the description of each stroke along with some health benefits of swimming and possible equipment needed. Though it is mostly based as a sales website it does also provide great and simple information for a beginning swimmer. It also is a reliable website because many of the cues and techniques are stated in other texts and web pages. The website is also easy to read and navigate making it a simple to use for just about anyone. United States Association of Blind Athletes Simpson, M. (2012). United states association of blind athletes. Retrieved from http://usaba.org/index.php/sports/ This website provides information for students and adult that are blind or visually impaired and would like to compete in an athletic event including swimming. It provides information on what someone should do to start swimming recreationally or competitively and where they can do that. It also provides links to other websites that can give even more information so a swimmer. The website is also easy to maneuver and someone who is visually impaired is able to increase the text size or contrast of the webpage making it very user friendly. For my research it helps by providing links and information to other possibly useful website so that I can learn more about swimmers that are visually impaired. US Paralympics Swimming Us paralympics . (2013). Retrieved from http://www.teamusa.org/USParalympics/Sports/Swimming.aspx This website provides information on completive swimming at the US Paralympics for students and adults with a wide variety of impairments. It provides some back ground on swimming in the Paralympics as well as the regulations and standards for each swimming level. This information is useful to me in order to learn more about what some of my future students that are more competitive and might want to compete are the Paralympics or Special Olympics. The information listed is also all up to date for 2013 and a calendar of events is listed through 2016. I feel this is also a reliable website because it is the official US Paralympics web site.

Flag House Flag house physical education equipment. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.flaghouse.com/ This website allows teachers and schools to purchase a wide variety of physical education equipment including items for Adapted Aquatics like life vests and other assisted flotation devices. This is very helpfully in my research because it allows me to compare different types of equipment on price and function. It is also very easy to find certain categories and all the equipment is fairly up to date. I feel that this is also a reliable source because many of the items list are already owned by UW Platteville or are very similar to the equipment we have. American Red Cross: Swimming and Water Safety Erdtmann, J. (2009). Swimming and water safety. (pp. 161-180). Yardly, PA: StayWell. This book is a guide to teaching water safety and swimming skills to student of all levels including students with disabilities. The book describes and shows pictures of techniques for different swimming strokes as well as safety rules when around the pool or any body of water. This book helps with my research though because it has an entire chapter devoted teaching students with disabilities, including safety, benefits of swimming, and facts and myths when it comes to students with disabilities participating in swimming. This is also a very reliable source because the American Red Cross is a very well know organization that helps set standards in swimming safety as well as helping many children and adults with a wide variety of disabilities. Adapted Aquatics Programming Lepore, M. (2007). Adaptive aquatics programing. (2nd ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. This book is probably the best resource and most reliable resource I used though out this project. It is filled with vital information on teaching students with disabilities how to swim and stay safe in an Adapted Aquatics class. The book was written to teach college students and other professionals about what Adapted Aquatics is and how to structure a class for students with disabilities. Being that this is the text that was assigned in class I feel that it is also very reliable and up to date for this topic. For my research because I feel so confident about this book I used it a lot and based much of what I research online from it. Adaptive aquatics Adaptive aquatics. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.adaptiveaquatics.org/ This website is the home page for a summer camp that provides workshops and clinics for students with disabilities. Though they mostly specialize in water skiing equipment they also provide other aquatics activities to. This website also provides a number of links to other useful websites that have to do with adaptive aquatics. This helps my research by not only providing a different side of adaptive aquatics in water skiing, but also allows me to learn more information

from their series of links to broaden my knowledge. I feel that this is also reliable information because it is an actual camp for adaptive water skiing and students with special needs. SLiCE Students leadership, involvment and community engagment. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.slice.colostate.edu/special-needs-swim.aspx SLiCE is a website for a program where student volunteers interact with community members a variety of disabilities. It is run very much like a summer camp where college age students interact and work with students with disabilities. This is beneficial to my research because it allows me to learn how other students my age are able to work and interact with students with disabilities and what those students might be capable of. It was a very easy site to navigate and I feel it is reliable because it is an actual program for students with disabilities. It is also up to date I feel because they have an up to date calendar of what they do and the services they provide for each student. Kittelson swim school Kittleson swim school. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.kittelsonswim.com/specialneeds.htm This website is for a swim program for special needs students similar to the one we provide for local schools. They offer swimming class for a variety of students from autistic to nonverbal students. The allow students to have a fun educational time in the water well remaining in a safe environment. This aids me in my research by providing additional information about a swimming program similar to our own. Sense this is something very similar to our own program I feel that it is very reliable and they have a couple locations right around Madison. Swimming with autism anderson, T. (2012). Swimming with autism. Retrieved from http://swimmingwithautism.com/sample-page/ This website is for a book geared towards a program that provides information and support for swimming program for students with autism. It provides firsthand knowledge for swimming with autistic students and what might work or not work depending on the student. I feel this is beneficial for my research because it allows me to gain more information on a specific disability and teaching strategies that work for them. I feel this is reliable because it is for an actual text book designed just for an adaptive aquatic class for students with autism.

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Swimming Assessments
Instructional Materials: Sunsational Swim Skills Chart- check list and goals of different swimming skill levels 1-7 Personal Checklist- checklist and goals for specific parts of swimming strokes Purposes for use: Both of these checklist provided detailed criteria to evaluate a students swimming ability and technique. An instructor can use the Sunsational Swim Skills Chart to assess multiple students and determine when they are ready to move to the next level. In a one on one session the instructor can instead use the Personal Checklist to assess the student. This will help enhance cognitive skills and motor skills of a student by allowing them to see how where they need improvement and how they are currently performing.

Educational Implications: The Sunsational Swim Skills Chart will benefit student learning by giving them a large number of goals to reach in their swimming ability, it will also aid a teacher by having a set criteria of when a student is ready to move on to a higher level and where they might need more improvement. For students with disabilities the Sunsational Swim Skills Chart will help assess where they are functionally compared to their peers and what might help them improve learning. The Personal Checklist will help both the student and teacher in learning by having a customized check list for that student strengths and weaknesses. This will make learning easier and instruction more appropriate for what the student is capable of doing. Having a Personal Checklist will also benefit students with disabilities by having it customized to their own motor and cognitive abilities.

Personal Check List

Day 1 Ryhmic Breathing (front crawl) Continues swimming well breathing Elementary Back (arms) Extends arms straight out and down to hips Elementary Back (legs) Glides after every kick, frog kick used Tread Water (arms) Big slow waving Tread Water (legs) Big slow kicks Diving (standing) Leans forward, hands hit first, dives down Diveing (from blocks) Leans forward, hands hit first, pushes with legs, dive out for distance + +

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Additional Comments:

level 1 level 2 level 3 Not Addressed

+ NA