Helping our athletes and families stay active, healthy and connected @ Home
Special Olympics Canada offers child and youth programs designed to help children with an intellectual disability develop basic motor skills and sport skills through fun and positive movement experiences. Special Olympics promotes opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy, enhance skills and create friendships.
Young athletes and their families can now follow the Active Start and FUNdamentals @ Home Guide, which includes step-by-step directions on how to do activities and games that are practiced at in-person programming. The guide will also give suggestions of how athletes and families can use household items to participate in these activities if equipment is not available. Although developed for young athletes, the activities featured in the guide can be fun and beneficial for athletes and family members of all ages!
Download the Active Start and FUNdamentals @ Home Guide:
"The Active Start and FUNdamentals @ Home Guides will provide parents and caregivers opportunities to engage in physical activity and skill development with their children at home and in their communities. By reinforcing the skills, knowledge, and attitudes learned in their weekly sessions with Special Olympics, the families will be able to play, learn and participate together. This will increase the likelihood that these important early skills will be practised in multiple contexts, be valued by the whole family, and increase the probability that the children will participate in physical activity and sport for life; which will, in turn, have a positive impact on their health and overall quality of life. By empowering families to engage in physical activity together, everyone will benefit."
- MEGHANN LLOYD, PHD, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ontario Institute of Technology