So often when a child has a diagnosis of dyslexia, it is easy to forget that there could be traits of other co-occuring differences being experienced. Should our schools take this into account in P.E lessons and what could be the impact?

I recently listened to a podcast about physical education. It was sent to me as a bit of background on theories that are useful to consider when teaching students with any kind of SEN.

Firstly let me tell you that I was really reluctant to listen to this. Why? I really didn’t like PE at school. At the time I was not aware of the concept of neurodiversity or that maybe that there could be a reason for my own ‘clumsy’ way of being. I often fell over, my movements were often uncoordinated and as such when I was told to do sport, I felt the fear of never being good enough. What I did like about P.E was when it took me into different environments such as running around a wood but because this was presented as ‘Sport’ aka you need to be competitive, I endured it more than gained benefit because being competitive never really worked for me.

In hindsight and with a recent diagnosis of the combined ADHD/ADD with traits of dyslexia and developmental delay disorder (aka dyspraxia), I realise that for me, my teachers presenting a competitive model for understanding movement, was never going to motivate me. If I had experienced a different approach then I may have engaged more.

So quite frankly listening to a podcast on PE, just wasn’t exciting for me, but I thought I would try and listen to the first couple of minutes of the hour long episode…

My goodness how I was wrong and how interesting it was. Feel free to listen to the podcast episode below, but if you area particularly interested in dyspraxia (DCD) then at 44 minutes Ross Williams, a PE teacher at St David’s College talks about using physical education strategies to help students who could be experiencing elements of dyspraxia to understand how their bodies move by ‘gamifying sport’ so that the fear of failure is removed.

What did I learn from this podcast episode?

For starters, you can see from this picture of my notes below how engaged I was with the thoughts about how the sport model of P.E is broken and how it can be a barrier to engagement. This was my experience and I think perhaps the experience of many neurodiverse students who not only struggle with aspects of dyslexia in class but also in a P.E lesson when movement can be a challenge especially when the class is run from a competitive perspective.

For me, this podcast made me view physical education differently. I always saw it as a lesson in competitive sport, but that can be so alienating for students who struggle with movement or who are simply not sporty. What I really liked, is how Ross at St David’s College, teaches PE from a perspective of understanding how the body moves thus giving students with SEN profiles an opportunity to gain a better understanding of how their body moves. This can then translate back into the classroom in terms of confidence and motivation.

Got any questions for Ross about his work?

If you are a teacher with an interest in SEN and movement, a SENCO or a parent, Ross will be making himself available for questions at the St David’s College Virtual Open Day taking place on the 6th Feb 2021. To find out more and to reserve your place, just click the banner below: