Hoping somebody might be able to give some advice.
My 6 yr old (aspie) daughter has just asked me if she could go to "kung fu" classes. She is hemiplegic, which means she had something like a stroke at or before birth. So she has pretty low muscle strength (upper and lower body) overall, and specifically on right side of her body. She also has scoliosis (spinal curve). She can't jump or hop, and can only kick with her right foot (cos she can't balance for long on the right foot alone).
I'm keen to let her have a try, and I've been told (by specialist physical special needs teacher) that she should be allowed (and encouraged) to try any new physical activities (like dance clubs etc) that she wants to try.
I know nothing about martial arts, apart from some vague idea that tai-chi is fairly mild stuff and karate is mainly hand/arm stuff ? I'm pretty sure kick-boxing would be unsuitable, but can anybody who knows about martial arts, suggest which form would be the most suitable for her to try?
From what I read on local club sites, children her age aren't expected to do "combat" which is fine, but I just don't understand the different forms/styles enough to make a choice. I'm sure that it could be of benefit (help strengthen some muscles etc). So could somebody give me a brief "martial arts for dummies" rundown, and some recommendations?
I did shukokai karate, and my friend did shotokan, but there are quite a lot of stretching exercises, a lot of martial arts will have such a warm-up, which may or may not be good for your daughter, tai chi is in its modern form, more akin to slow meditative dance, rather than a combat art, in my school of karate anyway there are a lot of kicks, leg sweeps and similar sorts of moves.
Id rule out krav maga and systema completely, israeli secret service martial art, and russian spetznas martial art respectively, vicious, effective, more or less anything goes in a combat situation.
Judo might be an idea, a lot of it focuses on grapples, throws, with some punch and kick work.
Have you tried contacting any organisations for people with hemiplegia and scoliosis? I know some of these organisations have specialist dance classes etc. which take into account people's individual movement issues - so perhaps they might be able to advise regarding suitable martial arts classes?
Also, it might be worth just phoning some martial arts centres and asking.
I did this as I have dyspraxia (so my co-ordination is appalling and also my body won't move in the way I tell it to and can also move involuntarily in a 'ticking' kind of way) and also my learning difficulties mean that I need people to explain things very carefully to me and show me - sometimes by actually moving my arms or legs for me as it is easier for me to learn some movements by 'feel' rather than by watching another person execute them and trying to copy.
I did (eventually!) find somewhere that was willing to take me on and where they already have a member with similar issues - so I am planning to try it out over the summer.
I think in part it has a lot to do with the organisation and instructor. I contacted one place on behalf of a disabled friend - and he was clearly uncomfortable and unwilling to look at ways to accommodate and include her, so we decided it was absolutely not for her.
Good luck!
There are two things to consider, the style and the teacher. When it comes to styles, from my experience, the less immediately vigorous ones that I have studied are Tai Chi (Yang style) and some aspects of Aikido/Aikijutsu, some aspects of Jujutsu, and some aspects of Judo. However, the teacher makes a very big difference. I would suggest looking at the specific schools in your area and seeing for yourself.
Even something like Kempo or Hapkido could, in theory, be adapted by a sufficiently competent teacher.
I took tae kwon do the last three years of high school, progressing about twice as slowly as the other students, in a classroom of about 20 or 25 students. I don't have hemiplegia, but I do have numerous sensory issues, auditory processing issues, and physical mimicry difficulty, in addition to my being out of shape. In my first year I managed to do 15 push ups, but nowadays I'd be lucky to do 5. Also I have physical co-ordination issues, which is why I was in either no P.E. or adaptive P.E. from 4th through 9th grade, and I started taekwondo in 10th grade.
My main difficulties were with processing instructions (i.e. by the time I'd processed the instructions of what movement we're supposed to do, the rest of the class already did it), and with connecting belt colors to movements, as well as confusing the names of similar-sounding forms (I have this difficulty with English words as well as Korean words, also with Japanese and what French I remember, so it's not because Korean isn't my first language and I can't speak/understand it except for what I learned in the class).
Also, I was slower to learn the forms, and quick to forget them, even when practising a lot. This wasn't helped by being absent due to illness a lot from the class. My dad (who's also autistic), has this same difficulty: when he was a young adult, he tried to learn some basic routine for some Disneyland thing, but after practising and practising he couldn't get it down.
For taekwondo, you have to remember lots of froms (the sequence, the timing, the movements, the directions), though it starts out fairly basic. Also you learn one-step sparring movements, which isn't really combat, because it's planned movements and you're generally not trying to actually hit the opponent - there's free-sparring which is more of a combat, but even as junior high and high school students we didn't start on that for months, and when we did we had to order a bunch of protective gear.
I agree though, that you should talk to the prospective instructor before committing, and find out the specifics of what's going to be happening, and informing him or her of the specific needs of your child, and reasons why she might have more difficulty doing some things, and it'd be great if you could also schedule individual lessons, which is what I would've done if I had the money.
It was a great experience, though, and even though I developed skills a lot more slowly than my classmates and it was my hardest class, I enjoyed it and got a lot out of it. having a good instructor who is understanding of her needs is key, though, because without that it would be miserable. So, yeah, I encourage you to look for the martial art and instructor who would be best suited to her, and go for it! I always wanted to get into martial arts earlier, though my parents could never afford it.
If you are in the South East (of England) try
Discovery Martial Arts in Tonbridge, based in the Hillview School, Brionne Gardens.
It is my second son's Wing Chun Kung Fu school - he set it up because he wanted to incorporate all sorts of life skills for children, rather than just Martial Arts. He would be delighted to work with you to come up with a programme your daughter could manage. His philosophy is based on what children (and adults - his students range from age 3 to 70) are
able to do.
For instance, he will bring the class to a halt in the middle of an exercise to praise a child for
carefully listening to something he's saying, or to praise co-operation, even if it means that, by co-operating, the students have brought him down in an all-against-him battle!
I have sat it on some classes - all parents are encouraged to watch - and the students are always eager to do what they can and really enjoy the exercises and games. He will set them homework e.g. "This week, show your parents how well you are doing in self-discipline by tidying your room
without them having to ask first."
He says you can almost see the parents thinking "Please, oh yes, please..."
And they get reward tokens for doing something good, noble or kind etc. especially things that the parents report as having happened during the week.
If you are unable to get to Tonbridge, you could ring other Wing Chun (or Wing Tsun or WT) schools and ask what their approach is to children with special needs.
Apart from that, Tai Chi can be practiced standing up, in a wheel chair or even lying in bed.
I hope you find something for her - the sense of achievement would be well worth it.
Thanks for input everybody.
Tigger your sons school sounds great, but we are in South West.
Aliengirl, I've put a posting on "hemihelp website" but am awaiting response.
I've found a junior Kung Fu club (ages 5-13 yrs) part of Wutan UK that meets up weekly in Ems old nursery school (great familiar turf). They claim (on website) to treat each member on individual basis, and have experience of training children who are very shy and non confrontational - which sounds good for aspie issues. They say parents and children are welcome to sit and watch, its pay per session with no advance booking. So we'll turn up, I'll have a chat with trainer, and we'll see how we get on.
Em doesn't seem to have problems following instructions, and has in the past 12 months mastered some simple "dance-sequences" for school performances. She also enjoys PE at school, and joins in with everything she can manage.
Last time Em tried something new, it was ice-skating. A complete non-starter, but at least she got to see her (supposedly) able-bodied Mum sliding around on her butt, so she had a good laugh and didn't take that failure too personally. We ended up stuffing our faces in the cafe watching her elder cousins sail around the rink