Making Sport Inclusive

I believe that it is important to create an inclusive classroom where all children can feel welcome. Coming from a Physical Education background, I also believe that it is important to create inclusive environments in gym and on sports teams. Sports teams are largely viewed as inclusive if the coach gives everyone an opportunity to play. However, over my years in the Phys Ed program and now into education I have observed many articles and been a part of many discussions about how to make the classroom inclusive for all but I have had very little experience on how to make the gymnasium or a sports team more inclusive.

With this in mind I read the article Creating Inclusive Youth Sport Environments with the Universal Design for Learning by Rebecca Sherlock-Shangraw. In this article she discussed how “youth sport coaches are just as likely to work with athletes who have hidden disabilities” (p. 46, Sherlock-Shangraw, 2013) as classroom teachers. Yet there is a lack education given to coaches about how to understand children’s hidden disabilities and work into incorporating children’s hidden disabilities into improving their coaching techniques.

This is largely based on the fact that coaching and teaching are viewed as separate entities rather than different variations of the same entity which is teaching children. I hope that this is something that will change in the coming years as we see the importance of teaching to inclusion in the gymnasium.

“The Center for Applied Special Technology (2011) has organized UDL guidelines into three categories” (p. 42, Sherlock-Shangraw, 2013), these categories are multiple means of representation, multiple means of action and expression and multiple means of engagement. Rebecca Sherlock-Shangraw connected these three categories to the ideas of coaching and youth sports.

1: Multiple means of representation

This can be using different approaches to teach the same activity/skill. Such as the example used in the article of throwing a ball. The coach can use visual, auditory and kinesthetic cues to explain the skill to the children.

2: Multiple Means of Action and Expression

Using variations in the way that instructions are presented, i.e. verbally, on a while board, or through the use of “start and stop scrimmages” (p. 44, Sherlock-Shangraw, 2013), which are where the teacher/coach stops the practice at different points to highlight an aspect/skill and give feedback.

3: Multiple means of engagement

This could include the use of goal setting, asking questions, connecting the activity to the student’s interests, or giving the students the opportunity to demonstrate the activity themselves.

There are some aspects of an inclusive approach already being used in the gym; one of which is called modification. This is where the goals or the difficulty of an activity is modified to meet the physical or developmental restrictions that children may have. For example, if the students have to throw at a target 10 feet away, it could be modified to be closer for those students who may have difficulty throwing and farther for those who may find it too easy so that all the students can achieve success.

These are just some of the possibilities I have discovered on how to incorporate a UDL approach into the physical education teacher/coach environment, and many are very similar or the same as approaches used in UDL to create an inclusive classroom.

If you would like to check out more of these ideas check out the article which is available here. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07303084.2013.757191

Credit to Rebecca Sherlock-Shangraw adjunct professor in the Physical Education and Coaching Departments at Boston University.

Reference: Sherlock-Shangraw, R. (2013). Creating Inclusive Youth Sport

Environments with the Universal Design for Learning. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation

& Dance, 84(2), 40-46. Retrieved from: http://www.tandfonline.com.uml.idm.oclc.org/doi/abs/10.1080/07303084.2013.757191