Assessing Student's Needs for Assistive Technology (ASNAT)

Chapter 6 – Assistive Technology for Recreation …
Utilize Outdoor Play
Outdoor play as an alternative during Recreation and Leisure allows for skill development to progress in
a variety of areas. It allows for a greater opportunity to integrate the child’s sensory experiences through
the combination of auditory, visual, vestibular, and tactile senses that naturally occur during outdoor
play. It frequently increases the motivation of children with severe cognitive disabilities to respond to a
request. The potential for repetition also increases in this natural interactive setting.
The equipment available in playground areas is often the great focus of time and financial resources.
More important to the child’s ability to participate in these experiences is the preplanning and focus of
the play experience that needs to be done prior to the child’s arrival on the scene. Wide paths with a firm
surface are desirable so that the child can get to the play equipment quickly and smoothly. Swings that
have firm backs and safety straps make it possible to provide this stimulating activity for children who
otherwise could not participate. The kind that can be installed on existing frames are great, because there
is less expense and they can be on the same swing set with regular swings for other students. Sand boxes
on raised platforms that are wheelchair accessible or climbing structures that allow a child in a
wheelchair to roll within the structure provide opportunities for the child using a wheelchair to interact
with the more able bodied climbers passing through and running by.
Important to the success of outdoor play is the attention to normal peer interactions. An important step is
to assess the opportunity for a child to participate in playground games by using an augmentative
communication device programmed with greetings, key phrases for games such as hide and go seek,
using comments such as “try and catch me” or “bet you can’t run faster than me!”, or arranging an
artificial (but still effective) opportunity to use a device to tell kids when it is their turn to go on the slide
or when it is safe for them to slide down. It can be very effective to involve peers as “helpers” who get
special privileges and can spend time with our target child and even cue him when to activate his
augmentative communication device.
Simple adaptations to outdoor games can be used to make it more possible for the child with a disability
to participate. For example, the ends of jump ropes can be adapted with pipe insulation or the outside of
foam hair curlers to allow a child a larger and softer grip surface, or a new game can be devised that has
all children stringing juice cans on a large rope to see who finishes first (Sher, 1992). These are also
ways that outdoor play can be accessed for it’s potential to include everyone.
Swimming is recreation and leisure that provides a stimulating and enjoyable experience for students.
Swimming pools allow children to experience movement free of braces and barriers, often with friends
and peers. There are a number of flotation devices available commercially that can help maintain
buoyancy for a child with a physical disability. These include life jackets and float suits. (Please note
that no child in these devices should be left in the water unattended.)
Transitions
Assistive technology can help children transition from classroom to playground or other play areas and
back. Anti-tip bars on wheel chairs can decrease playground accidents. Wagons or strollers can be used
to move a child to and from class and play ground equipment. Standers for larger children that allow
children to free their hands to catch a ball are available from the Rifton Company, Sammons Preston,
and other manufacturers. There are several companies that offer adapted sport equipment. Some
additional suggestions include creating “Jungle gyms” from the long foam tubes and connectors offered
at several of the large department stores in the swimming section. They are lightweight and soft and
offer children with movement problems the opportunity to negotiate a soft maze alternative.
Assessing Students’ Needs for Assistive Technology (2004) 165