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Thread: Child with Aspergers wants to learn Judo

  1. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by trevorg
    That's about the most sensible thing thats been said on this thread.

    We live in a world where diversity is important and it is upto the sensei to make appropriate accommodation for people less able, no matter whether it is a physical or mental disability. Good parents will be able to establish the soundness of a good teacher.

    Trevor Gilbert

    Thanks Trevor, living with disabilty not too far away (20 odd years of experience) one does appreciate people are people, and deserve a fair crack of the whip, it's their life, let them live it, they don't need mollycodling, they just want some help, to be themselves, like we all do.
    Jim Boone

    Flick Lives!

  2. #17
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  3. #18
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    I don't know how I missed this one.

    My oldest son has Asperger's syndrome. He has been active in wrestling,
    karate, gymnastics, soccer and baseball. He started karate at 9 and is now
    14. Our experience is, if the instructor is informed and understands
    that the child is different, that there is no problem treating them as an
    ordinary kid. It takes a little more patience, but not that much more
    effort. Not really mollycoddling but nothing more than some else with
    an other learning style. I have a friend who can't do anything without
    explaining every nuance of the move (an enginneer). Sometimes I just have
    to tell him to stop talking and start doing. Same with my son.

    Keep in mind that Einstein, Newton, Andy Whorhal, Dan Akroyd
    and Andy Kaufman were all Asperger's. These are just a few off
    the top of my head.


    PM me if you need more info.

    Peace.
    Ray Baldonade
    Chibana-ha Shorin-ryu

    "Love many, trust few and do wrong to none". Chan Yau-man

  4. #19
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    I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome when I was in my early 20s. At that time, I had some Shotokan and Aikido under my belt, neither of which had really hit the mark for me.

    I seem to have settled in Bujinkan, although time constraints have had me on sabbatical for the last couple of years and I'm just now getting back into it. To my sensibilities, Bujinkan has a good flavor - I have yet to come across an instructor whose demands don't make sense, and I really feel as though the techniques I'm learning have an intrinsic value.

    Additionally, I haven't found Bujinkan instructors or students that take themselves *nearly* as seriously as in other arts. This is a good thing for me, as I approach the mat with the impression that we're all adults, even if some of us can hold others down and make them squeak - an attitude not well received in some venues.

    Asperger's Syndrome tends to run along a continuum, with some folks *really* turning inward while others, seeing value in social interaction, try and build our own guidelines for interpreting social cues. I *still* don't have any idea how to tell when someone is laughing or crying by the way their face moves or the sounds they're making, but I have learned that folks don't tend to pet and console folks who are laughing, and that the phrases 'it'll be all right' and 'don't worry' are not generally directed to the mirthful, so I look for those and similar cues to make the call. If these cues are not available, I've had decent luck asking directly ("Are you crying or laughing?") but only with folk who are close to me - this is apparently an intimacy which is unwelcome between strangers.

    Additionally, a large problem for me in terms of dealing with social interaction has been determining what constitutes an acceptable topic in certain settings. For example, I have learned the hard way that one does not discuss techniques in eye surgery in any amount of detail at the dinner table, no matter how complex, new, and exciting they may be. I have added this to my list, although it makes no subjective sense to me that that topic should be taboo at that time. I learn more and more of these social oddities every day and in doing so, expand my repertoire of techniques for dealing with other human beings.

    This is a factor that should definitely be taken into consideration - martial arts training is an intensely social endeavor, fraught and riddles with opportunities for this child to prove yet again to everyone just how differently his mind works. This can be a positive experience, but not if he's subjected to ridicule when he doesn't put slot A into tab B 100% of the time.

    Checking again, I notice the last post on this topic was in 2006 - I'd be interested in hearing how things have gone for this child in the interim.
    Carl Hamlin
    -----------------------------------------
    'The etiquette that underlies all martial arts is based on the assumption that the person with whom you are dealing is standing before you wearing three feet of razor sharp steel.' - George Ledyard

  5. #20
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    Though I am not any professional trainer, but I would like to suggest you to let him go for Kyudo. Actually, one of my friend's baby was also facing similar problem so many judo trainers suggested him to go for Kyudo.

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