Special Olympic Resources for supporting Individuals with IDD to stay active at this time!
Hi all
On behalf of Alicia Bazanno, Chief of Health for Special Olympics, Inc. I am posting resources that have been developed and are available to individuals with IDD, families, and caregivers/providers at the Special Olympics website.
Young Athletes:
– Family Flash Cards: Fun and engaging flashcards featuring each of the individual activities and at home equipment modifications for families to use at home to run Young Athletes.
– Young Athletes At Home: Guide for families and caregivers on how to run Young Athletes activities at home.
– Young Athletes Videos: Videos demonstrating the individual Young Athletes activities.
– Healthy Play at Home: Poster for families to track the various healthy behaviors they do at home.
– Tips for talking to children about Coronavirus 2019: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/talking-with-children.html and https://www.unicef.org/coronavirus/how-talk-your-child-about-coronavirus-covid-19
Fitness:
o Fit 5 Guide: Educational guide and tracker for athletes to focus on fitness
o Fitness Cards: A series of leveled exercises in endurance, strength and flexibility. These cards can be done at home and with little equipment.
o Fitness Videos: Videos portraying the exercises in the fitness cards. Athletes can follow along to with the videos to get a great workout!
– Staying Fit at Home—simple week long calendar that athletes can follow to stay fit. Week long calendar can be repeated as needed. Athletes can sign up on the link in the resource to receive newsletter with content from Health Messengers to for tips and ideas on how to stay active.
– School of Strength (NEW): Officially launching on Wednesday, March 18th across the Special Olympics movement, School of Strength is an interactive online platform that encourages athletes to participate in a fun and engaging training program that they can do in the comfort of their own homes. Developed in partnership with WWE superstar Becky Lynch, this series of videos, a fitness tracker, a coach’s playbook and a caregiver toolkit all contribute to helping athletes focus on nutrition and fitness and getting the most out of their workouts. **Please note that all materials will launch on Wednesday, March 18th and are under embargo until then.
eLearning Course:
– With the help of athletes and Program Staff, we have developed a 30 minute eLearning course for our Special Olympics community about COVID-19. This course is designed to cover the basic information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) including: what is the coronavirus, what are the symptoms, how does it spread, and how you can protect yourself. We encourage the entire Special Olympics community to complete this module at learn.specialolympics.org Please see instructions for accessing this course.
As this pandemic unfolds, in the coming weeks, we will be providing more tools, resources, and activities. We will have calls regularly for updates. We are all in this together and, together, we can contribute to solutions for our athletes and community
Please take care and stay healthy