It should never be about finding activities to include children with disabilities. That’s not inclusion. There should be no boundaries to children with disabilities participating in fun and exciting social and physical activities. We shouldn’t be giving children the equipment to climb over a wall. The wall shouldn’t be there in the first place.
Our communities should provide equal opportunities for everyone to access physical activities.
Current guidelines suggest, children and young people with disabilities should carry out 20 minutes of physical activity. This promotes motor skills, balance and coordination. Physical activity allows young people to meet new people and experience a sense of achievement.
All young children deserve to be engaged in activities that are fun and make them feel good. Exercise for all children should be challenging, but manageable.
Your local authority must provide young people and their families with information about services available to you via a ‘local offer’. This is usually as part of your local authority website or as a stand-alone website. To find out more information type the name of your area and local offer into the search engine to see what’s available.
Oldham local offer: Click Here
Rochdale local offer: Click Here
As paediatric physiotherapists we would recommend activities such as swimming, hydrotherapy, cycling and frame football. There are many equipment companies that now market specialist adapted trikes which can be charity funded. Our team are happy to support the assessment of adapted trikes and provide supporting letters to help with applying for charity funding.
The benefits of trike riding can be found on the Jenx website following the journey of some young people: https://jenx.com/successfully-implementing-adaptive-cycling-as-part-of-a-specialist-school-programme/
If you would like advice on how to promote physical activity in young people don’t hesitate to get in touch.