Since three years from the beginning of the project “Football Together”, we will attend in Roma at a tournament of integrated football between our guys and those of Totti Soccer School.
Tag Archive for 'autismo'
«Spengimi l’autismo che devo fare gol». C’è tutta la voglia di vivere di un ragazzo sbrigativamente etichettato come “diversamente abile” nell’appassionata richiesta — che vale più di uno scudetto — al suo allenatore, che è anzitutto un amico. Con un particolare in più: il ragazzo che «vuole spengere l’autismo per fare gol» gioca nella Roma. Sì sì, la Roma-Roma, quella vera di Totti e De Rossi.
La squadra giallorossa è infatti l’unica al mondo ad aver dato vita al progetto “calcio insieme” che vede sessanta bambine e bambini con diverse disabilità giocare con i loro coetanei tecnicamente così bravi da far parte, appunto, dei settori giovanili della Roma. E non è retorica affermare che non è ben chiaro chi ne tragga più vantaggi.
«Probabilmente tutti allo stesso modo» risponde di getto il direttore generale della Roma, Mauro Baldissoni, che due anni fa ha fortemente voluto questo progetto-pilota, affidato all’Accademia calcio integrato, tanto da considerarlo il fiore all’occhiello di tutte le iniziative solidali promosse dalla fondazione Roma cares.
di Giampaolo Mattei
The sport is increasingly getting closer to the world of youth with autism (ASD) and it can be of considerable help in improving their motor skills and their degree of autonomy, reducing the risk of acquiring a sedentary lifestyle. This review, although published a few years ago, provides valuable information to those who want to propose physical education and sports programs for young with ASD. They are not practical information but those theories, science-based, that who is approaching these young should know (obviously along with many others).
Motor Coordination in Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Synthesis and Meta-Analysis
Kimberly A. Fournier, Chris J. Hass, Sagar K. Naik, Neha Lodha, and James H. Cauraugh
J Autism Dev Disord (2010) 40:1227–1240
The literature focusing on gross motor behavior and development in ASD is plagued by inconsistent findings.
ASD is associated with greater clumsiness, motor coordination abnormalities, postural instability, and poor performance on standardized tests of motor functioning
Several studies failed to detect differences between children with ASD and those with learning disabilities or mental retardation, general developmental delay and language disorders across reflexive, intentional, fine and gross motor tasks.
These studies provide critical information regarding the types of motor impairments seen in ASD, but the specific patterns and sources of motor deficits in this population remain unclear.
Other approaches to elucidating motor components of ASD include neural signaling. Abnormal transmission in the serotonergic, dopaminergic, and GABAergic systems, frequently observed in ASD, may potentially affect motor performance
Individuals with ASD have larger total brain, cerebellar and caudate nucleus volumes; however, the area of the corpus callosum is reduced.
Several related studies in which motor behavior was evaluated using home videos of children later diagnosed with ASD compared to typically developing children demonstrated motor differences within the first 2 years of age.
This review study showed:
Differences in motor performance observed are not dependent upon a specific diagnosis within ASD. Indeed, individuals diagnosed with autism, globally as ASD, or Asperger’s syndrome all possessed significant motor deficits compared to the individuals with normal neurologic development.
An immature postural system may severely limit the emergence and performance of other motor skills.
Movement disturbances such as akinesia, dyskinesia and bradykinesia may affect a person’s ability to initiate, switch, continue or effectively communicate, interact socially, or perform activities of daily living.
That motor coordination deficits were more prevalent in individuals diagnosed with ASD than in controls with neurologically typical development.
Consistent evidence for an increase in total brain volume as well as specific brain regions including the cerebral hemispheres, caudate nucleus, and cerebellum in autism. Conversely, the corpus callosum was consistently reduced in size. Moreover, post mortem studies have detailed increased numbers of altered cortical mini-columns that may lead to a less well-organized cerebral cortex and less integration among brain regions reported children with high functioning autism demonstrated diffusely decreased connectivity across the motor execution network relative to children with normal neurodevelopment.
Children with high functioning autism had significantly smaller grey matter volumes in subcortical, posterior cingulate, and precuneus regions than those diagnosed with Asperger’s. Compared to controls, smaller grey matter volumes in predominantly frontopallidal regions were observed in high functioning autism where as in Asperger’s less grey matter was observed in bilateral caudate and left thalamus. It has been found higher white matter volumes around the basal ganglia in high functioning autism than in Asperger’s or controls. Both ASD groups, however, possessed greater white matter volume than controls. Conversely, both ASD groups had less frontal and corpus collasol white matter.
Taken together these mechanistic findings suggest a broad, large area with disarranged neuronal organization and cortical connectivity across ASD.
Life, Animated is a 2016 American documentary by director Roger William, based on journalist Ron Suskind’s 2014 book Life, Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes, and Autism, which tells the story of his son, Owen Suskind who struggled with autism and learned how to communicate with the outside world through his love of Disney film.
Roma Cares Foundation and the Integrated Football Academy continue even this year the project “Football Together” directed to children of 6-13 years with intellectual disabilities. The project aims to use football to promote the sports, social and psychological development of young people. The program is meant to be a sport training adapted to the needs of each individual, with specific motor and psychosocial assessments (beginning, during and year-end) permitting anyone to learn if followed by competent professionals (football instructors, sports psychologists, speech therapist and doctors) with training sessions organized into units of 60 minutes twice a week from October to June.
For further information: segreteria@accademiacalciointegrato.org
It starts the third season of the project “Football Together”, devoted to children, 6-12 years old, with intellectual disabilities who want to play football with AS Roma and Accademia di Calcio Integrato.
“Hearts DON’T TREMBLE” Football Together meets Amatrice Arquata and Accumoli in Roma, May 20, 2017.
A day of sport and integration between soccer school children of Amatrice, Arquata, Accumoli and those of the integrated football of AS Roma. The Rome Cares and the Integrated Football Academy, in collaboration with the group the three municipalities affected by the earthquake spent a day together of football, solidarity and sociability so that children and their families can feel and share how the real sport is able to communicate the joy of being together.
Integrated football aims to promote physical activity and teaching of football among young between the ages of 6 and 12 years. The goal is to improve the quality of their lives through the practice of sport but also to build a community where school , family, sport organization and team can feel part of a project, to facilitate the empowerment of each child, just as it was defined by the International Paralympic Committee.
Teaching sport requires competence and professional responsibility. In particular, teaching team sport like soccer to children with intellectual and social disabilities requires a training that goes beyond that absolutely important obtained through university graduation. For these reasons the ASD Integrated Soccer Academy promotes two free training courses, financed by the Presidency of the Regional Council of Lazio, in collaboration with the Italian Paralympic Committee, the Italian Federation Paralympic Sports of the Relational Intellectual and AS Roma. These training courses aim to teach operators coming from different professional fields to work in integrated soccer programs for children (6-12 years) with intellectual and social disabilities. The training is based on the experience of the AS Roma and AS Integrated Soccer Academy within the project “Soccer Together”: a model of integration through soccer, for children with intellectual disabilities. The course is divided into a general theoretical part and a practical part. The main teaching tool is the interaction of the participants through working groups and practical situations in class as on the pitch. The use of interactive class situations has the goal to develop a learning group participation. Training days are aimed, moreover, to provide the skills needed to support, help and guide children with disabilities, but also to properly handle any problems. The kick and the ball will be key tools to guide the child in learning sports, develop motor skill and the social and psychological aspects. At the end of training the participants will have acquired the basic skills to train, manage and evaluate integrated soccer activities for children with intellectual and social disabilities. The course consists of 20 hours of lecture and 4 hours of practical training. The course is open to motor science graduates, psychologists and sport physicians.
For further information please contact:
ASD Accademia Calcio Integrato
e-mail: segreteria@accademiacalciointegrato.org
