Trust gives disabled people skills, confidence

By NATASHA HARRIS

It took two years for 8-year-old Dale Henderson to learn how to ride a bike. Learning how to jog took one year and now he runs 20 minutes every day.

He can even play basketball and do karate, after one-on-one training for a year.

Running so often may seem excessive but Dale needs to do so to maintain his muscle tone.

Diagnosed with moderate Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Dale also finds it hard to follow instructions and his sight and hearing is sensitive.

But after a lot of help from his Tall Black manager father, Tony, his mother, Mary, the chairwoman of Autism New Zealand's Auckland branch, and from Halberg Trust workers, Dale's confidence and self-esteem have soared.

"He really fits in now with his brothers and school friends as he can play with them now," Mrs Henderson said. "It has made him more confident as he has something in common with them.

"And jogging every day has helped his vision."

The Halberg Sports Programme assists disabled children under the age of 20 to play sports by funding coaches and equipment. Sixteen sport opportunity officers work in regional sports trust offices to achieve the trust's goal of getting disabled children into mainstream sports clubs.

According to Andy Roche, manager of the Sport Opportunity Programme, the sport officers are not medically trained but all are multiskilled in sport.

"The emphasis is on being a sports programme, not a disability programme."

North Shore sport opportunity officer Michelle Roscoe said Dale's development was amazing.

"When I saw him at gymnastics almost two years ago he would have a bit of a shutdown and cry or run away.

"But when I saw him at karate six months ago, it was amazing to see the change - he communicated better, he was more outgoing and he was following the instructions of the coach. It was like a different kid."

Three years ago, Mrs Henderson sought Halberg Trust funding for Dale to learn to swim and, for the past year and a half, he has been working one on one with a coach to learn karate.

Mrs Henderson praised the Halberg Trusts Sport Opportunity Programme for giving Dale the one-on-one specialised coaching he needed to be as co-ordinated as other children.

Like other trust recipients, Dale receives once-a-week coaching.

"They're fantastic because they view teaching disabled children from a community approach - they are not teaching the kids in isolation."

Miss Roscoe said the trust used one-on-one coaching, and consulted family and teachers, to ensure a child got the assistance needed to reach mainstream-level sport.

"We try to educate and make coaches aware of the different disabilities and we do this by working with teachers, clubs and gyms to help integrate the children.

"We want to make parents of disabled children understand that sport, especially for children with special needs, can give huge benefits.

"A lot of parents think, 'Oh, sport - what's my child going to get out of that?' but, in cases like Dale, his whole confidence has changed and his self-esteem has gone up.

"It's an area where disabled children can succeed where they might not academically."

But some families do not know about the trust's help for disabled children.

Miss Roscoe puts this down to a false perception of the trust.

"People think we just run the Halberg Sports Awards and that it's just for elite sports people - not for disabled children. Awareness needs to be raised that the money and funds from the sports awards go to people with disabilities trying to get involved in sports."

The trust gets no assistance from central Government, and the sports awards are its major fundraiser.

But new funds have come up. Mrs Henderson has brought the trust and the Auckland branch of Autism NZ together on a development programme especially for autistic children.

She has arranged for 12 North Shore children to develop their basketball, athletic and karate skills in groups of four. They started this week.

Herald Feature: Health