Special Kids - Celebrating The Uniqueness of ALL Children

Dorothy Hamill Helps Disabled Kids Break The Ice

The adaptive skating program was established in November 2009 so that children with physical disabilities could enjoy recreational ice skating. Part of the physically challenged sports programs at Kennedy Krieger Institute, I-Skate provides these children a unique opportunity to get involved with physical activity, which improves their health, as well as providing a chance for important social interaction with their peers. It also helps participants learn an activity they can enjoy for the rest of their lives.

The Program typically runs late fall through early spring, and over the course of those four or five months, the participants work on developing their skating skills. At the end of the program, the kids showcase their hard work with a show for friends and family.

Learn More: http://i-skate.kennedykrieger.org/

Learner Bikes for Children with Special Needs

Learning to ride a bicycle is one of life’s milestones, the first step to gaining true independence. And for parents there is no prouder moment than the sight of their own child pedaling away in the distance having mastered its art.
 
Children have an urge for movement and something as straightforward as a bicycle or scooter allows the child to develop their physical potential. It’s almost given that any child will love their first bike more than any other toy and it is something they will remember for the rest of their life. It’s their first independent form of transport and forms the basis to learn much more about coordination, balance, agility and the world around them. 

 
The physical development of a child is as important as their educational progress. Between the ages of two and five years old they are learning how to move their bodies, how to balance and be self-aware. This in turn helps to build their confidence and develop their personality.
 
The skills they develop at this age are called gross motor skills – activities that involve the larger muscles in the arms, legs and torso. These help to improve the child’s body awareness, reaction speed, balance and strength through actions such as lifting, kicking, running and throwing. Developing gross motor skills gives a child a sense of achievement and feeling that they are really growing up.
 
BUGABIKE
Learner bikes, such as the BUGABIKE , are the perfect introduction to the world of cycling for youngsters and help to develop this early learning skill. They have been produced for children who are too young to ride a traditional bike. The simple, pedal-less design of learner bikes means children have to power them by pushing their feet against the ground, and use their feet to restore balance. By separating the steering and balance function from the pedaling, children can learn to balance without any other distractions.
 
Children are natural learners and constantly absorb new experiences. They love to make independent progress and by having a BUGABIKE, cycling is something they can learn how to master on their own. They will discover how it works, how to keep in equilibrium and how to make it move faster. Within a short time they will have more confidence about staying upright and will soon be coasting with their feet away from the ground. 

Because learner bikes help children to acquire these skills at a younger age, the transition to a conventional bike is much quicker and more natural than those who are dependent on stabilizers' or training wheels. Although stabilizer's help children to get over their early fear of riding it is believed that they do more harm than good in developing the fundamental basics of riding. They offer a false sense of security and encourage dependency by forcing the bike to lean to one side while children are pedaling. This can still be the case once they are taken away.
 
The learner bike is also an easier method for parents who would otherwise teach their children to ride by holding the back of the saddle.
 
Since gross motor skills are improved with practice, children need plenty of opportunities to exercise these skills. Nowadays it is common for children to spend most of their leisure time watching television and playing on computer games, making outdoor play an endangered activity. Childhood obesity has become a growing concern for parents and experts agree that the decline in outdoor play has had a significant impact on this. Encouraging youngsters to undertake vigorous activities such as riding a bike will not only entertain them for hours but will also help their future health and physical development and allow them to explore a different environment.

Play is an integral part of children’s learning and is an important medium through which they develop skills, knowledge, concepts and attitudes. By playing outdoors children learn through what they do, through what they encounter and what they discover.

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But most of all play is about having fun and getting the balance of play right can give children the best start in life.

BUGABIKE is available at BUGABIKE and discounted at AMAZON.COM .

Cerebral palsy not stopping Gregory from living a dream

Born 10 weeks premature with a moderate form of cerebral palsy, his lungs underdeveloped, his legs crisscrossed, his eyes askew, D.J. Gregory faced a litany of medical procedures the moment he took his first breath.

When doctors pumped oxygen into his collapsed lungs, however, the pressure caused blood vessels in his legs to rupture which rotated his feet outward at a 90-degree angle. At age 2, doctors told his parents their son would spend his life in a wheelchair.

They didn't accept the prognosis.

What followed, in addition to six surgeries on his eyes, were several operations on his legs and feet. In a full-length body cast until he was 4, Gregory first got around by crawling everywhere without complaint, then he used a walker with four wheels, then one with two wheels. He graduated to two canes.

Still requiring one cane to balance himself, he is forced to lock his knees to take his next stride and needs two short paces to equal a standard step. He enjoys telling people he wobbles instead of walks. Yet the boy who was given little to no hope of ever being able to walk down a driveway, let alone up the mountainous fairway of the 18th hole of Augusta National, is now a 30-year-old man walking in the footsteps of the PGA Tour.

Every one of them.

Following a dream

The "sports nut" from Savannah, Ga., is following his dream to live life on the Tour, driven to navigate every hole of every round of every tournament with a different player each week this year.

That means the 135-pounder will hike 2,682 holes, or, at an average of 7,000 yards a course, more than 1 million yards and 600 miles. That is, if he doesn't add the Ryder Cup and Fall Series to his schedule.

"I love golf," Gregory says. "This is a personal challenge. I'm not looking to be inspirational. But if that's what's happening, this is my message: If you have a dream, go for it. Don't listen to people say you can't do it."

That was his mantra when he figured out how to play golf one-handed when he was 9; he needs the cane embedded in his left hand to balance himself. He fell in love with the sport three years later when his father took him to the 1990 Greater Greensboro Open.

A chance meeting with former CBS golf analyst Ken Venturi turned out to be the first steps to this year's season-long trek. Hoping to fill out his golf hat with autographs, Gregory got more than Venturi's John Hancock. Venturi took Gregory to the driving range, where he was introduced to Lanny Wadkins and Payne Stewart, and invited Gregory to sit in the 18th-hole tower during a telecast that week.

In the tower was CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz, who, like Venturi, took a liking to Gregory. Nantz and Gregory kept in touch over the years when Gregory went to six to eight events a year, earned a master's degree in sports management from Springfield (Mass.) College, interned with the Houston Texans and made a living selling items on eBay and working for an Internet company doing research.

The golf bug kept biting Gregory, and he came up with the idea of spending a year on Tour. Last year, he went to the Arnold Palmer Invitational for a test run, hooked up with pro Aaron Baddeley, followed him for 72 holes and figured there were stories to tell.

Nantz got wind of Gregory's aspiration and suggested he write up a proposal summarizing his desire to chronicle every step on Tour, by blog and book. Nantz handed the pitch to Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem, who instantly agreed to hook up with Gregory. The Tour invited him to two FedExCup playoff events last fall — "They wanted to see if I could physically handle two weeks in a row," he says — and didn't need to see anymore.

The Tour assigns a player to Gregory and gives him a media pass. Gregory in return writes a weekly blog for pgatour.com.

"He has helped people understand how passionate people feel about the PGA Tour and its players," Tour vice president Ty Votaw says. "He's an inspirational story."

Others swiftly gravitated to Gregory's march. Corporations, including Southwest Airlines, Footjoy, Ashworth and Outback Steakhouse, have chipped in to help finance his dream that he figured will cost $300,000.

Building a fan base

He also has developed his own fan base as people from all walks of life amble over to meet him and offer encouragement and gratitude.

"There was a man with a big gut at the Sony Open who came up to me and said that after he learned about D.J., the least he could do was to get his butt off the couch and meet him," Gregory's father, Don, says of his youngest of three children. "D.J. doesn't think he's handicapped at all.

"He's had this dream, and to be able to fulfill it means all there is to me."

Gregory's a hit in the blogosphere, too, where his weekly accounts draw plenty of interest. He also now works with United Cerebral Palsy to help raise awareness.

Unanimously, the players are inspired, too, and will tell you that Gregory's weekly golf hikes are not, as Mark Twain once said, a good walk spoiled.

"I requested him," Kenny Perry says. "When I think I'm struggling and I look over at him, I see my hero. He just wants to live his life.

"He's a great story, and I love being a part of it."

Nantz also has been moved.

"It's going to take an awful lot in golf to be a better story than D.J. Gregory. It is the defining story of 2008," Nantz says. "D.J. is sending a message to people about determination and faith and vision and courage. I really believe we're all eyewitnesses to something that will be a movie someday."

A movie, mind you, with painful scenes. Each morning of tournament day, Gregory puts eight bandages on his feet to combat blisters. He calls his legs "spastic" and every step looks like a difficult task.

"It's tough sometimes to get going again after I stop," he says. But, as he says, "It's been everything and more. It's my dream, and I'm living it. It doesn't get any better than that."

Article By Steve DiMeglio, USA TODAY