We had a Golf Appreciation Course every morning from Mondays to Fridays with around 26 autistic children taking part and not all of them from our school. All of them were of differing levels of education, age and severity in autism. It was done in collaboration with The First Tee, a worldwide organisation dedicated to promoting golf among the young. Apparently they have a branch in Singapore, who would've figured.... It's not like we're going to produce a Tiger Woods or something, but then again....
Anyway, the course ended today with all of the children (and myself as well) getting their first taste of the golf course proper. Well, not the whole 18 holes. They had a taste of the driving range. And boy did they enjoy it when the ball left the tee and landed a full 5 meters from where they stood...... heh. I'm not kidding. They truly did enjoy it. For most of them, its a case of sensory stimulation and also a sense of being able to just do what us, normal people would be able to do. Though how many of us normal folks would be able to afford a round of golf is a totally separate issue in itself.
Next up was on to the Green, where most of them pretty much terraformed it into a bunker....
Still it was great to see them having fun and being able participate in such social situations which they usually find hard to.
The afternoons was spent helping out with the in-line skating program which included around 30 kids of differing age, education and level of severity in autism. I was again amazed by their ability to adapt to what was required of them within the span of the program (5 days in case you were wondering). Personally, I had expected a lot of anxious screaming and tantrums thrown as in-line skating requires a lot of improvisation and less routine. I guess sometimes I forget that they are in essence humans and not some pre-programmed android that would react in a specific way based on preconceived algorithms. Though most of the time they might give anyone that perception.
Change is not something an autistic person handles well and I was extremely glad that they coped with the numerous changes in how the program was done each day. All except for one child who kept insisting on doing his practices in the basketball court, which was the original venue on the first day instead of the assembly which was where it took place for the remainder of it. The program was run with the help of a local fitness-cum-skating company known as AG Sports.
And it was also amazing to see how easily they took up to in-line skating. Close to 95% of them were more than able to skate by the first day without any prior experience. And nearly all of them were able to skate almost as well as the coach himself. I gather it had something to do with how they perceive things or maybe it has something to do with their sensory integration problems - the need to spin around and stuff. Either way, I'm just happy they enjoyed the whole session.
I had planned on staying on for the final session after my Friday prayers if only to see the coach, Mr. Sandy Snakenberg, do a demo on speed-skating. He was after all the in-line speed-skating champion in 1999. Somehow the lure of home was more tempting.
I'd recommend both of these companies to anyone looking to run their own golfing or in-line skating camp as I was quite impressed with the coaches. Especially with how patient they were with the kids and all their quirks.
Next up is a highlight on a movie that I definitely must catch this Christmas season. I've been having withdrawal symptoms since the Lord of the Rings movies have ended their run the theaters. And though the Harry Potter movies and Narnia helped a bit, they don't even come close to the fantasy setting my mind has been tuned to. So imagine my delight when I discovered that Eragon is all set, done and scheduled to be aired here this month. Nevermind that the characters seemed different from how they were described in the book (not that I've completed reading it). Nevermind as well that Rocky Balboa would only air here in March. I've waited years for a Rocky-like movie, so what's another three months for the real thing. Eragon would definitely help placate me for those months.
Anyway, here's the trailer for Eragon. I had wanted to write about something else in this post as well but I think I've bored you guys enough already. Will write about that tomorrow, if things don't add up too much. Enjoy the trailer, it looks damn good and I hope the movie lives up to it. Or at the very least does justice to the book.
1 comment:
Have to agree with you on that one. I really hope they capture the essence of the book as well....
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