Background of Case Study
This young person started coming to our Fazazkerley Junior Sessions of May 2021with ASD, no confidence and low self-esteem. In the eight months since the young person has been coming to our junior sessions, we have seen a positive change in her confidence, independence, and communication skills. Examples of this include she now very happily plays with the boys on the football pitch, despite being the only girl. Furthermore, when she first came, she was very nervous if she was late being picked up and would get very upset several times. Now she more than happily comes to session on her own, is able to leave without getting upset and will happily engage with many people during the session, regardless of age. She never really used to get involved with any activities at the start; now, she is playing sports, joining in with all activities and helps our younger people during sessions,
Adding onto the background of the case study, Sports Alive has been very impressed with her development, and we are very proud of how far she has come. As an organisation, we aim for all young people to learn new skills, increase their development and to simply be a positive influence on the young persons life. In the space of six months, she has increased her confidence, independence and communication skills, to the point that Sports Alive has dedicated her the role of being a young helper in our junior sessions. This will continue to aid her development, and her mother has also commented on how her school has been very impressed with how much she has increased in confidence and independence.
Sports Alive work undertaken: Project involvement – Sessional Work
Because she has developed so much during our sessions, Sports Alive has now given her the responsibility of being a young helper. A young helper is when the young person is given more responsibilities to help staff during the session. Some examples of this include helping younger people with activities, taking out equipment, cleaning and clearing away of equipment, as well as assisting staff with any larger activities such as dodgeball. The purpose of this scheme is to promote confidence and independence in our younger people who we feel will benefit from being given more responsibility. As she has shown an interest in helping out, and has always shown good behaviour during sessions, Sports Alive gave her the role of being a young helper on our Thursday junior sessions.
As she has expressed an interest in playing football, Sports Alive will now work with her parents to try and locate a girl’s football team for her to join. She has told us she is really keen to continue playing, and we would like to try and assist her with joining one. This will only increase her confidence and independence more, which is vital for just starting secondary school. Having a strong interest will also keep her motivated and aim to develop further in playing football.
Key findings and area for development
When she first started coming to sessions, Staff noticed some areas which she struggled on;
Lack of independence – She would never come to sessions on her own and would always have a one friend she would come with. She would also tend to stick with that same person throughout the session and would rarely engage with other young people. Furthermore, despite being old enough to come and leave sessions on her own, she would always get dropped off by her parents or her friends parents. She would also never want to go to the shop or leave during a session by herself.
Lack of confidence – She would struggle to feel confident during activities and would not feel comfortable doing some activities such as big team games. She was reluctant to engage with other young people apart from her one friend and did not want to come on any trips. She also did not show much interest in some activities and just wanted to do something which she felt comfortable with e.g. colouring or playing on her devices that she brought to session.
Autism – This diagnosis was put down by her parents on her form. Sports Alive are aware of her this can affect young people. Her parents also told us that she struggles to make friends and only has a very small friendship group in school and outside of school. Sports Alive also noticed that she tends to focus on specific activities for herself such as rubix cubes, playing on her phone or simply doing some simply arts & crafts.
Lack of willingness to engage in some activities – She was very reluctant at first to engage in any big team activities. She would also tend to stay inside and would get upset if she did not want to join in with any activity. She struggled with activities that involved working with other people such as dodgeball and team games. She would never join in with the boys or have played football.
Sensitivity – She seemed to get upset at minor things such as jokes, being late picked up, not wanting to do certain activities, and would not have felt comfortable helping during a session.
In terms of her development, all these areas have been significantly improved. She has shown remarkable improvement in her confidence, independence, and communication skills. Sports Alive will continue to promote her development through the young helper programme, finding her a football team, and to hopefully help her transition into the senior programme.
To add onto her development, her parents have commented several times on how much she has grown in confidence, independence, and her ability to be in social situations. The school has also commented saying the same improvements, as well as saying that she has developed remarkably in being able to make friends, and to feel more confident in social situations.
Summarise the Case Study
This young person has shown remarkable development in her confidence, communication, and independence skills since coming to our sessions. Her school and parents have all commented on how her skills have improved from coming to Sports Alive sessions, and we are continuing to enable her development by giving her the responsibility of a young helper, as well as looking to provide her a place to play on a girl’s football team.
This young person has come from being a shy, sensitive, low confidence child to someone with increased confidence and communication skills, the independence to play football and join in on a wide variety of activities such as arts and crafts and cooking, as well as always being well behaved and being a positive role model to our younger children. Sports Alive are very much looking forward to continue working with this young person, and to give her more chances to continue to develop, gain skills and increase in confidence.