An Experienced Instructor
I first started teaching adaptive at a dedicated adaptive school in Alaska, where almost everyone skis at some point, and I’ve seen busloads of “special needs” children pass through the program, have a great time, and through their regular annual visits, learn to ski on their own! For the last 3 seasons, I have taught adaptive ski lessons at Heavenly Resort in South Lake Tahoe, CA. This year, I am offering lessons with the amazing program of Disabled Sports USA, a leader in providing training and support for adaptive skiing, and one of the first adaptive programs ever created in the country. In my lessons, when appropriate I integrate strategies based my work with the Anat Baniel Method for Children(R), a system that provides the conditions to improve the ability of special needs children to organize their brains to move and learn. I see my moment to moment relationship with your child as integral to our ability to achieve success and motivation.
Have Fun with therapeutic benefits
In our adaptive ski lessons, your child will
* Be motivated by their desire to learn the sport and have a good time
* Get to have an adventure.
* Achieve competance and success through visible skills
* Progressively and naturally improve balance and coordination
* Become more focused and attentive as they move rapidly through space
* Interact with their instructor in positive ways to overcome fears
* Emerge with greater clarity, improved speech and relatedness, and a smile!
Understanding Your Child’s Challenges
While each child is unique, I understand that many times special needs children may have special challenges with physical coordination, handling fear, staying focused, and being motivated. My goal is to develop a positive, clear relationship with your child so he/she can bring out his best. I am interested in process, not just the goal, and respecting your child’s needs. At the same time, I recognize that many times your child may need to have both security and boundaries in order to be willing to take steps for their advancement. I actively attend to the way your child processes information and how I can relate more clearly to integrate his/her strengths in different “intelligences,” and establish a learning relationship. I believe that learning happens when the lines of communication are open, which is an art of timing, sensitivity and the recognition that learning does not need to occur in a linear way. Being able to experience new levels mastery and achievement, where there are new pleasures along the way, is part of the fun of skiing for children. As a coach, my job is to find the “road”-sometimes through challenges, sometimes patience, and sometimes timing - to the place where your child can pull it all together.
Safe, competant teaching
Ski instruction involves a natural progression of skills and understanding of skiing fundamentals, and adaptive ski lessons “adapt” it for special needs children. In a basic sense, this involves more interaction through experiential learning. In our lessons, I use tested principles of ski learning also based on an understanding of how your child develops. Usually more than one lesson results in the best outcomes.
Dedicated Program Staff
The program at Disabled Sports USA is run by people who helped write the manual for adaptive instruction and are leaders in the field. They understand the challenges your child faces, and have seen thousands of adults & children with disabilities learn to ski. They are dedicated to your child’s success, and they run a program that is dedicated to service, rather than profit. They constantly trade information, techniques and expertise to enrich the overall experience of their program experience.
Ski Equipment Adapted for Your Child’s Safety, Ability, and Learning Style!
In adaptive teaching, I may use special equipment like harnesses to keep your child safe, and other forms of support to enable your child to learn and have fun faster! Disabled Sports USA invests to regularly maintain and inspect all equipment for safety, and keep equipment up-to-date.
Trained and Certified to Work with Adaptive Skiing
The professional ski instructors of america certifies Adaptive Ski Instructors. I am certified to work with children with cognitive/developmental delays.
