Adapted Spiral Praxis
Special Needs Training
Course Overview
Parents and Caregivers Option
This course consists of three modules designed to teach you the fundamentals and key principles of working with children with special needs, such as Autism, developmental delays or Down's Syndrome. The courses are designed to provide parents and caregivers with basic, effective activities to work with their children at home.
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Each module lasts 7 weeks with weekly online classes taking place every Saturday at 2:30pm EST. The course is a highly interactive format where everyone will share their particular experience through the curriculum. In addition to classes, parents will be asked to create weekly objectives for their children and keep a video journal of their child’s progress. Every parent will have access to our note-taking application as well as a community forum where they can share their child’s progress and ask questions. They will also be able to access a bank of online videos that will demonstrate principles that we cover in class.
Professional Certification
A certification option to teach children as an official Adapted Spiral Praxis practitioner is available for those professionals and dedicated parents who wish to learn the deeper technical aspects of ASP. The certification has 3 levels:
ASP SPECIAL NEEDS LEVEL I
Year one consists of the first three modules of the Parent and Caregiver Option plus a mandatory onsite 4-day training. Completion of the ASP SPECIAL NEEDS LEVEL I program will allow participants to gain the fundamentals of ASP to work with their own children.
ASP SPECIAL NEEDS LEVEL II
Year two consists of three modules of mentoring in which participants will be guided toward developing a personalized curriculum for the particular population of children they are working with. Successful completion of the ASP SPECIAL NEEDS LEVEL II program will result in the participant becoming an officially certified ASP practitioner.
ASP SPECIAL NEEDS LEVEL III
The ASP SPECIAL NEEDS LEVEL III certification is a single-module course for those who wish to be able to train and certify other professionals through the ASP curriculum. Master-level candidates are chosen by invitation only and are for students who show exceptional aptitude and passion for bodymind study.
On-Site Requirement
Completion of the full certification requires participating in on-site training with Yuji Oka. Contact us to inquire about our on-site training opportunities.
What is the course about?
Yuji Oka developed Adapted Spiral Praxis to help children with special needs learn how to connect with and use their bodies, and to discover flowing, independent movement. Originally, this special needs curriculum was developed at Positive Education Program (PEP), Ohio’s largest mental health agency. The program was so successful that the administration at PEP conducted a clinical study of the movement program and found that it allowed greatly accelerated the children’s motor progress*. It has subsequently evolved over 25 years and has helped thousands of children with special needs to gain more awareness and control over their own bodies.
Frequently in Special Needs curricula, we focus on getting our children to learn through fixed, repetitive patterns. While this may be helpful to manage problematic behaviours, it doesn’t allow children with special needs to develop a more independent, natural way of learning that focuses on their gifts. The ASP program emphasizes a Flow learning approach where learning is performed in developmental stages, starting from the ABCs of movement and leading to more open-ended improvisational structures. By keeping kids in their flow learning zone, ASP can often help children dramatically improve their motor aptitude by allowing them to progress through their own particular learning styles.
The ASP Level I is structured into 3 modules. Each module is designed to not only give an overview of the methods and principles of ASP but also to provide a real-time curriculum for working with your child over the course of the intensive.
Module I begins with Body Grammar, the exploration of 14 core gross motor skills in the rolling, crawling and jumping categories. These core gross motor skills are the ABCs of movement and will serve as the basic vocabulary for subsequent modules. As well, the first module explores 24 basic yoga poses, such as tree, downward dog, and table. All these movements and poses are then modified using space, time, energy and partnering variations to really deepen and enrich the child's learning experience.
In Module II, all the skills learned in Module 1 will be linked together into spatial sequences. This means yoga poses will become salutations, and individual movement skills will become intricate obstacle courses.
You'll learn how to break down sequences to make them easier to learn, and then how to vary them to keep them interesting and to enrich the child's motor understanding.
The third and final module will explore the rich world of creativity and dance. You will learn how to teach creativity in the contexts of stillness/flowing movement, and open-ended cognitive activities involving groups of friends. For ambitious parents and professionals, the module can culminate in the very rewarding practice of guiding children to create their own beautiful dance choreographies — even incorporating music!
Completing all three modules and attending our annual in-person intensive will earn you our Level 1 Certification. This certification is essential for those who aspire to work with children with special needs using Adapted Spiral Praxis. For full details of dates, times and fees, please fill out our registration below.
Financial Support
Please reach out to us if you are experiencing financial difficulty and cannot afford the program. We offer financial help for eligible participants. Contact us at info@adaptedspiralpraxis.com.