PE: physical impairment at P level 4

The degree of physical impairment impacts hugely on the strategies needed for inclusion. With mild physical impairment the PE curriculum should be adapted to focus on the pupil’s strengths, keeping the curriculum as close to the original as possible. For example, for a wheelchair user with upper body movement, focus on upper limb skills. The pages in this section refer to profound physical impairments.

• Difficulties arise with the range of movement that a profoundly impaired pupil can achieve and whether they have the flexibility and strength to use equipment.
• PE and severe physical impairments often have associated visual impairments or hearing impairments and epilepsy.
• Problems with sensory processing may mean that they don’t perceive touch, sight, and sound in the same way as other children or have the same level of own-body awareness.
• There are often communication issues, requiring augmentative aids.
• Profound cerebral palsy may have associated learning difficulties.

You can

• Ensure that communication is approached creatively – use spoken word, touch, music, objects and intensive interaction. Intensive interaction is an approach to teaching the pre-speech fundamentals of communication to children and adults who have severe learning difficulties and/or autism and who are still at an early stage of communication development.
• If the pupil is able to demonstrate a consistent physical response to a stimulus, such as raising an arm or hand or turning their head to ask for more, build on this to encourage movement then try to develop more varied responses. This type of work needs to be approached in conjunction with a speech and language therapist.
• Develop awareness of cause and effect through use of timed switches: these are switches which control electrical devices such as a CD player, fan, bubble tube, which can be set at a variety of timings to they cut out after a given amount of time. This helps the pupil signal more of an activity they enjoy.
• Help self-awareness using hand and foot massages – talk about what you are doing, naming the part of the body and looking for responses.
• Consider using a Tac Pac, an activity pack that combines touch and music to promote communication and social interaction.
• Let the pupil choose how they use familiar equipment – ensure it is easy to hold with an interesting texture and bright colours within the pupil’s known field of vision.

Now you might like to look at

• PE and physical impairment at P level 5