http://memphismirror.com/bartlett-trainer-creates-specialized-gym-for-people-with-autism/
When most people think of an autistic person they probably do not imagine them lifting weights in the gym. People with autistic spectrum disorder typically struggle with physical fitness and sports and many face problems with their motor skills, coordination, and balance.
One woman in Memphis has chosen to think differently. Donna Tschopp is an exercise physiologist and autism exercise specialist who has owned a personal training center, named Dangerous Fit, in Memphis for 22 years.
Through most of her career, Tschopp focused on exclusive training sessions with more high-profile clients, but the idea to train people with ASD came to her.
“I have the need to change people’s lives for the better. About a year and a half ago it was brought to my attention that the autistic community had a great need for a place to go for recreation and I started to think there was no place for them to go for exercise.”
Training people with ASD takes a lot of patience and care. A recent studypublished by the Interactive Autism Network showed that children with ASD scored very poorly in their abilities to balance and catch a ball compared normally developed children and children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Children with ASD also suffer with poor communication, social skills, and behavior. Because of these behaviors and lack of skill many children with ASD are not able to participate in the normal sports and activities most kids are able to while growing up.
In situations where a person with ASD has to follow many rules and interact with many other individuals at once they tend to get overloaded.
The environment inside a gym is able to be controlled a lot more than the environment out on a sports field. The child cannot run away, music and temperature can be controlled, and the trainer can limit the amount of people inside.
“My environment is perfect for this type of clientele. I can turn the lights down, I can play music or have no audio at all, and there are no other people there that could be in our way” said Tschopp. “The environment is designed to meet the needs of each individual. I think this environment is better than an autistic individual trying to learn in a school setting with many other people and distractions around.”
Tschopp’s first client is a ten-year-old boy named Davis Cartright. His mother, Jenny, and grandmother, Mary, have been bringing him to his training sessions for about four weeks now.
Davis had struggled when trying to participate in sports with more non-ASD children and his mother worried that he was spending too much time indoors.
“It makes him feel like he is doing something that is helping him. He feels like he can achieve it, so he doesn’t give up. He never really showed an interest in other sports. You cannot expect an autistic kid to participate in sports with other kids who are typical.” Said Jenny.
She also said they have already seen improvements in Davis since he began his training like the change in his weight.
“I think he’s already slimming up. We were concerned because he had gotten kind of thick. He really wasn’t exercising at all. He likes it, he has fun, and he likes to come.”
Tschopp is currently organizing training sessions at her gym in Bartlett, but her goal is to have a new facility designed and built exclusively for members of the ASD community. She hopes to have this gym up and running within the next year.
Comments