Every week, a bus filled with schoolchildren pulls up at the Boll Family YMCA and kids spill out, excited for their field trip to the facility. But the difference is that these children have autism and are participating in a community based instruction program through Detroit Public Schools.
They get to have a fun exercise class, brave the climbing wall, and have a swim in the pool. While the kids enjoy the exercise, the purpose of the visit isn’t fitness, says special education teacher Sarah Jardine; instead, it’s to help accustom these students to being out in the community. Children with autism deal with many sensory issues and get easily overstimulated in unfamiliar environments; the trip to the Y is part of a series of field trips that help the kids learn how to adjust to new environments so they will feel confident using them when they get older and are no longer in school. “We want to get them used to community recreation facilities so when they are adults, they will feel comfortable using them,” Sarah says. “Just like the general population, they can have a sedentary lifestyle and this helps combat that.”
The kids love being at the Y, Sarah says. They could choose between a number of different field trips as part of their community based instruction, and the Y was the overwhelming favorite. Staff at the Y have been very accommodating, she says. Members treat the students just like they would anyone else, and some even step in to help the kids brave enough to give the climbing wall a try. “The membership has been great,” Sarah says. “We even totally bombard the water aerobics class, and no one looks at us strangely.”
Something as simple as the temperature of the pool can make the difference between a successful field trip and a disaster, Sarah says. Since the Y keeps its pool relatively warm, the kids don’t get that shock of jumping into cold water and are calmer and more confident jumping into the water. The lifeguard staff also met with her to prepare for the students who would be visiting and were very enthusiastic about making the experience a good one for the kids, she says. “We hadn’t experienced that interest before,” she says.
Unlike a less community-focused fitness facility, the YMCA is willing and able to accommodate people with special needs. The DPS students are just the latest in a long line to benefit from the Y’s philosophy that everyone belongs.
To get the kids ready, the teaching team creates what’s called a social story — a board with 10 or 15 pictures of different elements of the Y, so when the kids come they feel familiar and comfortable. “We have to be very concrete,” says teacher David Hoopingarner. “We have modeling versus verbal directions.”
The climbing wall is especially popular — on one visit, a student got all the way to the top. Sarah says she was bracing for the student to get upset and not know how to come down, when he grabbed the rope and rappelled down, just as he’d seen other climbers do.
The Y visits are beneficial for the kids on many levels, Sarah says. “The kids are more calm and more focused,” she says. “When they came, they had so much fun they didn’t want to let go.”