Archivio per il tag 'autism'

Calcio Insieme a Casa

Durante il lockdown abbiamo continuato ad allenare i bambini con disabilità intellettiva.

Questa è la copertina del Quaderno Tecnico di Calcio Insieme a Casa che abbiamo realizzato in collaborazione con Roma Cares.

E un esempio di esercizio. Grazie a tutto lo Staff che lo ha reso possibile.



 

Seminario: Calcio e integrazione – l’esperienza dell’AS Roma con i bambini con disabilità intellettiva

Calcio Insieme è un progetto di empowerment psicologico, relazionale e motorio tramite il calcio per giovani con disabilità intellettiva, con particolare riferimento al disturbo dello spettro autistico.

Dal 2015 la Fondazione Roma Cares, espressione della responsabilità sociale dell’AS Roma Calcio, e Asd Accademia Calcio Integrato orga- nizzano su base annuale programmi di sviluppo motorio attraverso il gioco del calcio per bambini con disabilità intellettive. Le indagini condotte hanno evidenziato la costante presenza dei bambini durante le attività e la soddisfazione delle loro famiglie e i benefici motori, sportivi e psicosociali che derivano da questi programmi.

Scopo di questo Seminario è di presentare i risultati delle ricerche condotte, illustrare il modello d’intervento, realizzato per la prima volta nel calcio giovanile con la collaborazione degli istruttori della AS Roma, degli psicologi dello sport, del logopedista, dei medici e dei responsabili dei rapporti con le scuole e le famiglie.

Autismo, sport e campo estivo

Summer camp for children with ASD and parents’ perception of changes in psycho-social skills

ALBERTO CEI, BRUNO RUSCELLO and DANIELA SEPIO

IJSP, 2019, 50, 162-175

The study examined in children with ASD their psychosocial behaviors pre/post a summer sport camp of two intensive weeks in term of time (5 hours per day) and multidisciplinary approach. Participants were 29 children (8-13 years) from mild to severe degrees of ASD. They alternated the three activities each day for a time of 75 minutes: soccer, aquatic activities and expressive activities. The team leading the camp consisted in coaches, sport psychologists, one speech-language therapist and one physician. The Adaptive Social Skills Measure (Walker et al. 2010) has been used to assess the children psychosocial skills in four areas: verbal communication, social interaction, transitions and attention to task. The parents filled the questionnaire pre/post the camp assessing the psychosocial competences of their children. Results showed the parents perceived significant improvement in children for all four subscales. The data outlined the relevance to study in a natu- ralistic context these psychosocial skills in a short period of training but intensive for number of hours per day and activities practiced.

Recensione libro: Children and Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Children and Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

James K. Luiselli (Ed.)

New York, Oxford University Press

2014, 266 p.

http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199941575.do

My interest as sport psychologist in the autism disorder is born from the idea that the motor-cognitive activities and sport could affect this mental disorder in positive way improving globally the youth life style and their psychosocial and motor skills. It could seem obvious to underly this concept but it’s not, for the reason that till today it has been very few to involve these individuals in sport or motor programs on regular basis. From my side as practitioner reading this book I received a lot of updated information about autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as  a relatively new diagnostic label which reflects the variability in the differentiation of symptomatology among children and youth commonly described as having autistic disorder, high-functioning autism (HFA), and Asperger’s syndrome.

Skillfully edited by James K. Luiselli Children and Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a book of 15 chapters describing not only the theories about the autistic disorders but in same time presents the current best practices emerged from the evidence-based research, research-to-practice translation of empirically supported procedures, and consensus-driven recommendations from multiple disciplines.

For sport professionnels like coaches, sport managers, physicians and psychologists this book provide al leats three kinds of main information. The first is that also for these youth the sport determines healthy effects on their life. Second, in the same time, it’s not clear which could be the best coaching program to provide them and third we have a lot to learn from the other settings of their life, with the aim to adapt the strategies used in school or in other naturalistic approaches to build a program. Goal of the program is to develop self-management and self-regulation of their life starting from easy tasks. In my opinion, the most relevant chapter, after that ones of the first section devoted to diagnoses, assessment and measurement, is in the second section and it’s titled “Self-management and Self-regulation”. It provides the main frame to understand the goal of the interventions in the different area of the life while all the other chapters cover specific topics to achieve this goal of self-management.

All the other chapters are very interesting and each reader will find that one that will be more useful to reach his/her goals with these guys. The seven chapters of the section two describe best practices and from all of them sport practitioners can receive information and support to build their programs. Sections three (with the chapter on Exercise, Physical Activity and Sports) and four discuss in deep topics regarding food, sleep, mindful caregivers, cognitive-behavioral therapy and behavioral family intervention.

I recommend this book to all work in sport with youth of mental disorders, it provides information research-based and best practices to know in order to improve the program with youth with special needs