Teaching Physical Education to Pupils with Special Needs

Physical education is paramount to the holistic development of every young person. This is even more crucial when a young person has physical, cognitive, and/or emotional behavioural difficulties to overcome. Teaching Physical Education to Pupils with Special Needs often requires the teacher or coach to employ different methods and approaches to achieve even the smallest improvements in learning, performance, and independence.

The activities, games, and adaptations featured in this book have been developed within the teaching environment. They enable students with special needs to have opportunities to participate and compete, whilst learning and consolidating new and existing skills.

Activities in the book can supplement existing programmes and schemes of work, or act as stand-alone activities. They are intended and designed to be inclusive. The contents are organised into sections that cover: games and ball skills; gymnastics and dance; developing spatial awareness; and athletic activities. Schemes of work influenced by the national curriculum and the "Equals" schemes have been supplied to use with the activities, providing a guide for delivering an adapted PE programme to pupils with special needs. Additionally, they may be useful to mainstream teachers who need to supplement and adapt mainstream PE programmes to accommodate pupils with moderate learning difficulties or physical disabilities.