ACHILLES KIDS OVERVIEW

Physical activity is an important part of every child’s healthy development. But for children with disabilities, it’s more important than you think. A recent Reuters Health study reports that children with disabilities who participate in the right exercise program show improved quality of life, greater aerobic capacity, and better function.

The Achilles Kids running-walking-rolling programs have been illustrating this for over 22 years. Kids with disabilities get the opportunity to exercise regularly and compete with other runners, helping them become stronger and healthier. Equally important, they give children a way to measure achievement at any level of participation, gain confidence through their successes, and have fun.

ACHILLES KIDS IN SCHOOLS

It’s always fun for runners to choose routes where the scenery is interesting and there is a lot to see. For children with disabilities, this can be difficult to accomplish during the course of a school day.

Achilles Kids: Run to Learn program was developed in 1995 by Achilles International. The program consists of a series of physical and educational activities that integrate educational challenges and games with running, walking, rolling, or other forms of movement to encourage and motivate children to participate in regular physical activity.

It is based on a real 26.2 marathon, but done virtually. In a year-long gym activity, children do a number of laps each week. The laps are counted and converted into miles, and then charted as a 26.2 mile route on a map of their town. While the children are tackling the long-term accomplishment of completing the marathon, they are also realizing short-term achievements based on meeting weekly goals.

But the program goes far beyond the physical accomplishment of achieving their distance goals. It incorporates educational and physical activities, segmented by grade levels K through 6, that provide lessons in math, English, science, and nutrition.

The program is free and Achilles supplies classroom teachers and adaptive physical education teachers with all the training materials, customized virtual marathon maps of your city, as well as ancillary materials including Achilles Kids t-shirts, training log books, lap charts, 5 miler certificates, and half-marathoner medals.

Achilles Kids: Run to Learn is currently in over 350 schools in the U.S. with over 11,000 kids participating.

Last year, I was named Achilles Kids and Adidas PE Teacher of the Year for my hard work and dedication to Achilles Kids program.

Please click on the link below to read my blog about PS 251's Achilles' Kids Program as a monthly feature on PE Central's Adaptive Physical Education Monthly Newsletter:

http://www.ssww.com/blog/how-achilles-kids-can-inspire-special-education-pe-classes/#more-10188.