Developmental Physical Education programme
Alison McMichael and Andrea Crawford are physical education teachers working for Glasgow City Council. Having taught for over 20 years, initially in secondary schools, they both now specialise in the primary sector.
Alison and Andrea recognised several years ago that more and more children within mainstream primary schools had attention, balance and co-ordination difficulties. On further discussion with classroom teachers, they discovered that these children were also having difficulty accessing the curriculum.
Little training had been offered to teachers in order to help them cope with children who had been diagnosed as having DCD, dyslexia or dyspraxia and no training had been offered to PE specialists in mainstream primary.
Alison and Andrea realised that they needed personal development and training in order to help these children. They attended a number of courses including INPP Chester and INPP Scotland.
Through research, investigation and attending courses, they also discovered support material written by:
- Dr Peter Blythe and Sally Goddard Blythe (Reflexes, Learning and Behaviour - A Teacher's Window into a Child’s Mind)
- Christine MacIntyre (Early Intervention in Movement)
- Dr Madeleine Portwood (Developmental Dyspraxia)
- Dr Amanda Kirby (The Hidden Handicap)
- Afasic Scotland (Understanding and Supporting Children affected by Dyspraxia, DCD in Early Years)
This training and support material opened up a whole new world on how to recognise and help children who were showing attention, balance and co-ordination difficulties and gave Alison and Andrea the expertise and confidence to undertake a pilot project in Glasgow City.
Pilot project
Several research projects have taken place throughout the world looking at the effects of exercise programmes on children with motor and learning difficulties. Many of these studies reported improvements in the children.
George Hunter, Additional Support for Learning Adviser for Glasgow, has taken a keen interest in this area, and helped Alison and Andrea to initiate the developmental PE programmes in several primary and special schools in Glasgow.
The project was also supported by Barry Syme, a senior educational psychologist with an interest in movement programmes within the additional support needs (ASN) sector, and physiotherapists Janice Clark and Allison Morrison, who were also working in the primary education sector.
Alison and Andrea conducted the pilot programme over two years in four Glasgow primary schools. Forty-eight children were involved, 24 in the Movement group and 24 in the Control group. The children were selected by the senior management team (SMT) and class teachers (CT) to take part in the pilot programme as they exhibited attention, balance and co-ordination difficulties and were not accessing the curriculum to their full potential.
The pupils were selected according to the following criteria:
- Pupils who had difficulty settling to a task
- Pupils who were fidgety in their seats
- Pupils who distracted others in the class
- Pupils who verbally could answer a question but could not convert this to the written word
- Pupils who had difficulty with co-ordination in the gym
- Pupils who were often in trouble in the playground.
Children with poor balance and motor control may exhibit some of the above characteristics. They are often described as ‘clumsy’, ‘lazy’ ‘reluctant to try new skills’, ‘easily distracted’ - the list goes on. These children are having difficulty coping with their ‘self’, ie one body and four limbs, never mind listening, writing and getting organised. They acquire many delay tactics such as pencil sharpening, chatting and challenging behaviour. These are the children Alison and Andrea were endeavouring to support and help through a programme of developmental physical education to enhance their motor development.