{"id":27683,"date":"2014-04-22T14:45:34","date_gmt":"2014-04-22T19:45:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=27683"},"modified":"2019-01-25T14:11:20","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T19:11:20","slug":"course-aims-to-bridge-health-care-gap-for-youth-with-disabilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2014\/04\/course-aims-to-bridge-health-care-gap-for-youth-with-disabilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Course aims to bridge health-care gap for youth with disabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"connollybn\"

Maureen Connolly, a Faculty of Applied Health Sciences' professor in the Department of Kinesiology, is offering her \u2018Programming for Disability and at-risk Youth' course (PEKN 4P02) in Brock's expanding Spring\/Summer curriculum.<\/p><\/div>\n

There are gaps in the current health-care system for children and youth with disabilities, and Maureen Connolly’s long history of advocacy in this area has helped to bridge them.<\/p>\n

Connolly, a Faculty of Applied Health Sciences<\/a>‘ professor in the Department of Kinesiology<\/a> who is also cross-appointed in the Department of Child and Youth Studies<\/a>, is offering her \u2018Programming for Disability and at-risk Youth’ course (PEKN 4P02<\/a>) in Brock’s expanding Spring\/Summer<\/a> curriculum.<\/p>\n

The course is designed to help students learn to design individual movement plans for children with disabilities.<\/p>\n

Connolly has taught the course during Fall\/Winter terms since 2008. This is the first time the course is being offered during Spring\/Summer as part of the e-learning initiative.<\/p>\n

The course is taught as “flipped” classroom, meaning students learn online and out of the classroom before applying their knowledge in-class, six to eight times between May 5-Aug. 29.<\/p>\n

The course will focus on at-risk children and youth and then have students consider the particular issues and supports that these individuals might need in order to participate in an appropriate movement activity.<\/p>\n

For example, Connolly noted that Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a classic example of a disability that manifests differently for practically everyone who receives a diagnosis. As such, individualized movement programming is essential.<\/p>\n

The course also requires a practicum. Many students may choose to fulfill these hours in Connolly’s unpaid ASD summer movement camp<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This program, hosted on site at Brock University for the past 18 years, provides a developmentally appropriate movement education-based curriculum focused on the needs of youth and teens with autism.<\/p>\n

“Offering this course in the Spring\/Summer session provides a great opportunity to get students ready for the kids who are coming to camp,” Connolly said. “It’s not exactly glamorous work, but it’s absolutely necessary work.”<\/p>\n

While autism awareness is higher than ever, Connolly believes there aren’t enough programs to help teens and young adults with this pervasive developmental disorder. That’s where the Spring\/Summer course – and Connolly’s camp – can help.<\/p>\n

“It’s a vital service,” Connolly said. “The more we can prepare our students for this population in terms of competence and knowledge, the better.”<\/p>\n

Registration<\/a> is now open for Spring\/Summer courses at Brock, and demand continues to grow as the University expands its offerings for both students and community members who wish to begin, continue or extend their education.<\/p>\n

Last year, Brock noted a 17 per cent increase in Spring\/Summer enrollments from the year previous. Another 15 per cent increase is expected in 2014.<\/p>\n

Other Spring\/Summer stories:<\/strong><\/p>\n

  • Expanded spring\/summer term offers many diverse courses <\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  • Hybrid learning helps mature students reach education goal<\/a><\/li>\n
  • The President takes his hand to teaching an online course<\/a><\/li>\n
  • Condensed Spring\/Summer courses pack pedagogical punch<\/a><\/li>\n
  • Hockey course offers snapshot of Canadian culture <\/a><\/span><\/li>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    There are gaps in the current health-care system for children and youth with disabilities, and Maureen Connolly’s long history of advocacy in this area has helped to bridge them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,1],"tags":[28,1128,45,996,1817,141,1635],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27683"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27683"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55210,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27683\/revisions\/55210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}