Reprinted
from The Portsmouth Herald (N.H) Thursday, March 14, 2002
PLAY
with a purpose
Choose
to Swim program builds strength,
power
with an emphasis on fun
By Gina Carbone
She was an angry little girl but only from a lack of empowerment.
In the end, she taught Nancy Pleiter-Sadowy how to do her job.
A certified therapeutic recreation specialist with a master’s degree
in Education, Pleiter-Sadowy has been actively involving individuals with
disabilities in community programs since 1976.
In 1990, she started teaching swimming lessons and now runs the Choose
to Swim program as an adapted aquatics instructor at the Pool House in Kittery
Point, Maine.
“I got a referral from a
physical therapist to work with a 4-year-old four girl with muscular
dystrophy,” Pleiter-Sadowy says. “She
loved to move but was in braces. The
physical therapist recommended aquatics.”
Right away it was a difficult relationship.
The unhappy student, Megan, just yelled, “let me go, let me go!”
whenever Pleiter-Sadowy tried to instruct.
Then one afternoon it all changed.
“I came in and had a really
bad morning. I said, ‘you know
Megan, I’m having a really bad day. You
take over the class today,’” Pleiter-Sadowy recalls. “And she worked me hard! That was the turning point.
She needed to be in control and she did a beautiful job.
She would have me swim back and forth and she’d be on my back.
She just took over.”
Pleiter-Sadowy often uses props in class – including a mat, buckets,
foam pretzels and rope to push and pull for upper body strength.
When Megan grabbed the rope and asked, “Nancy, what do we do with
this?” Pleiter-Sadowy knew “finally
the door was open.”
“It became a partnership, then I could start to do my job,” she
says. “Kids like to be in
control. They like to have
choices. That’s when the
teaching started to change.”
She tells many similar stories . A
little boy with autism who loved computers and would only go in if the water
if Pleiter-Sadowy pretended they had top touch the bottom to type something on
the “keyboard”. Another boy
with hydrocephalus who didn’t want to swim, he just wanted to fill
containers of water and pass them back and forth.
“We were able to work that into therapy, working his shoulders.
His interest was not in swimming, it was in the objects. I had to build swimming around it.”
What sets Choose to Swim apart from other swim programs is the kind of
creativity married to a focus on building upper-body strength so kids can
actually perform the physical movements while they have fun.
“I was becoming very frustrated with myself when children were not
acquiring the skills to basic strokes,” Pleiter-Sadowy says.
She had a photographer come to a class a few years ago to take photos
for her final masters project and asked a physical therapist to look at the
pictures to assist her with terminology.
“(The therapist) immediately noticed the problem,” Pleiter-Sadowy
says.
One of the children in the photos was collapsing on one side as he tried
to lift himself up with the other – his little body wasn’t strong enough
to do the work.
“I was putting the cart
before the horse. I was asking
students to practice skills when their bodies were not strong enough to do so.
That observation became the focus for Choose to Swim.
I changed my program to include basic movements to strengthen the
shoulders, torso and lower back. Once
the bodies were strong, the skills came.”
Choose to Swim is taught in five week increments at The Pool House.
Currently, the youngest student is 31/2 and the oldest is 15 with four
students to each half-hour class.
This past Monday, Pleiter-Sadowy put herself on the bench with a back
injury and watched as fellow recreation therapist, Paula Wanzer, led the 4pm
class.
Kate LaMonica, 17, of Nottingham, helps Wanzer with the class, which
includes her stepsister, Sarah LaMonica, 6, Declan Wold, 5 ½, of Kittery
Point and Michael Gardner, 7, of Rollinsford.
“This class is a little different because he needs physical support,”
Pleiter-Sadowy says of Michael, an energetic sweetheart with cerebral palsy.
“He’s gone beyond therapy to the point where he’s ready
(to join the group.) When
they see him going under they say ‘I can do that.’”
While their moms sit by the pool and applaud, the kids stretch and warm
up on a mat then use their muscles to work themselves in the water.
It’s just fascinating to watch the progression. When
we first met Declan, he wouldn’t put his face in the water,”
Pleiter-Sadowy says as Declan dunks himself with glee.
Now Declan says “doing my handstand” is the best part of the class.
If one of the students says they can’t or won’t do something,
Pleiter-Sadowy doesn’t force them, she gives them a challenge.
“Okay, you show me how you can do it.
That’s been the lesson I’ve learned.
It’s not my agenda. It’s
our agenda.”
Outgoing and energized herself, Pleiter-Sadowy will use storytelling and
scenarios to motivate kids – “we have to cross the water with the sharks!”
– they get so caught up in the challenge they lose their fear of the water.
“The kids are having a ball but they’re working hard.”
Instead of calling it work, Pleiter-Sadowy gives movements “funny
names” like the Scardy Cat and Alley-Oop.
And the overall concern is for safety in ands out of the pool.
“A lot of kids live by the ocean or water.
Their parents are concerned for their safety, ” Pleiter-Sadowy says.
“I try to reduce the panic.” They
practice falling off boats and other scenarios so kids stay calm if they find
themselves in similar situations.
Down at the deep end of the pool, Paula Kate and the kids kneel on the
mat as Michael smiles over at his audience and poses with one hand raised.
“He’s an extrovert,” Pleiter-Sadowy chuckles. “I’ve seen him since he was a toddler.”
Michael gives
Pleiter-Sadowy a big hug and Kate thanks her for letting her be part of the
class. “I’ve always liked to
swim,” says the high school senior. “It’s
fun every time.”
But fun with an objective. “There’s
always a purpose,” Pleiter-Sadowy says.
“The kids have no clue because I try to make it a lot of fun.”
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