Talking Up a Sweat

Combining speech with exercise for active learning

Sharon Brilliant co-wrote this column.

Ever have one of those moments where you are able to take a concept from math or science and apply it to another situation? When we are able to apply themes and concepts to a broad array of situations, the importance of generalization becomes very apparent. Children and young individuals with autism frequently exhibit difficulty generalizing speech and language targets across different settings and people. They may be able to respond with a clear sentence when sitting at the designated speech table in the speech room, working with the speech teacher. This is a great start, but certainly not the ultimate goal of a program. The same is true of exercise and movement. Certainly there are specific times when new exercises are learned and practiced, with the goal being to generalize those skills to novel situations.

Picture a big, messy jumble of laundry. You can’t tell one item from another. Your favorite red t-shirt looks very similar to your grungy red pajama pants, your winter jeans and your summer shorts look exactly the same and forget about finding a matching pair of socks! Now you start to fold, sort, and put away the laundry and you can finally make sense of the big pile. Now that it’s organized, you can easily store, retrieve, and wear it. Just like laundry, language must be organized in order to be used effectively.

For individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD)—who by definition, have at least some level of language and social deficits—the ability to sort language is not intuitive the way it is for typical learners. Language therapy literally helps students sort, store, and retrieve language in a way that is logical and meaningful, which helps them to make sense and fully participate in the world around them. We’re all more likely to wear the shirt that is in an easy-to-reach, organized drawer than the shirt at the bottom of a messy laundry pile. This is the same in the case of our ability to synthesize and produce language. If we want to help individuals with ASD to effectively use their communication skills we have to help them organize their language.

By infusing language enrichment into other spheres of life, students learn to use these skills in a variety of settings. When instructed to do a jumping jack, for example, a typical language learner knows that they are being told to: First, while lifting arms over the head, jump. Upon landing place feet to sides. Then while placing arms back down at sides, jump and bring feet together. Without the ability to synthesize language these are just random movements that lack connection with one another – making it very difficult to recall and perform them on command.  Once a student learns the concept of a jumping jack it is much easier to carry out the movements. Learning what a jumping jack is can be compared to creating a drawer for pants, which makes it much easier to understand, perform and speak about the movement.

One concern with infusing communication goals into gym is, that combining curriculums may take away from the precious little time that students have in physical education? The idea behind collaboration between the disciplines is to improve both. Examples of ways to reinforce language goals that do not take time out of gym class include providing written and pictoral cues to reinforce concepts, such as a sign labeling the activity, a list of equipment on a board, or a question about the location of other peers. Language reinforcement absolutely does not have to take away from gym time. Ideally, it should help increase the student’s ability to process and participate in his/her gym experience.

Our classes were divided into three parts: warm-up, mobility and dynamic movement. We spent a few weeks practicing the same or similar movements in each section before developing a new set of skills to master. Not only does this provide the students with consistency in language and exercise targets, but it also allows opportunities to develop more complex language concerning the class and activities.

Interdisciplinary approaches allow students to generalize concepts and skills to novel situations and environments. Ideally, educators should make the goals of a lesson to combine the curriculum with life skills. They should seek ways combine life skills with the curriculum and look for ways to generalize skills beyond the classroom. By integrating or joining subjects together, even just on occasion, educators can develop highly creative, stimulating and enjoyable programs. This is an opportunity to teach children skills that they will use in life. With fitness and communication as the cornerstone of development, more opportunities arise. Remember, exercise is something we do. Fitness is something we live…and talk about!

Ways to Infuse Language Goals into Physical Education:

Social awareness of others. When students move near, with, or in reaction to peers they build an increased social awareness of others. This sense of other people is also crucial in activities ranging from the most basic social interactions to building friendships. During physical education class, students are naturally participating in parallel and reciprocal movements with peers.

Vocabulary and concepts. It is essential to create concrete contexts for students to learn spatial concepts and prepositions including “on,” “under,” and “next to.” The reinforcement of language through the manipulation of our bodies is a very concrete, and highly effective, way of learning. In addition, the repetitive nature of exercises gives students the repetition that they require to internalize concepts.

Generalization/specification. The use of color-coded, written descriptions of activities is one way to help students differentiate between categories. An effective way to infuse language is through the use of color-coded signs while an activity is being carried out. Asking students questions during rest periods between intervals can also help the student to apply concepts.

Categories. Increasing the ability to categorize is among the many critical ways we understand the world around us. Without the ability to do so we cannot differentiate between summer clothes/winter clothes, casual/formal and shirts/bottoms. Encourage students to categorize equipment, targeted muscle groups, and body parts used.

The sum of the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Language is the glue by which random events that occur in our environment have meaning. By integrating two disciplines into one class, we combine the stimulating, social, concept-rich physical education class with a language boost that helped students make sense and participate more fully in their environment.