Inclusion Opportunities for SEN Students

The phrase “Rebound Therapy” was originally coined by the founder, Eddy Anderson, in 1969 to describe the use of the moving surface (bed) of a trampoline in order to provide therapeutic exercise and recreation for people with a wide range of special needs.

What is Rebound Therapy?

Rebound Therapy is used to facilitate movement, to promote balance, to increase or decrease muscle tone, and to aid relaxation and sensory integration. It is also used to improve fitness and exercise tolerance and to improve communication skills.

It is popular in special needs schools and is becoming increasingly so in mainstream schools with a special needs unit; partly because trampolines are pieces of apparatus that virtually all people, regardless of their abilities, can access, benefit from and enjoy.

Progression

Rebound Therapy is not gymnastic trampolining; because the word “trampolining” implies a sporting element. However, as the special needs student increases his skills he can, if his ability allows, progress through the award levels of the Winstrada development scheme which many RT practitioners use.

This scheme not only records and rewards progress, but it is also designed to gradually taper into a mainstream scheme. Therefore all children, regardless of ability, can work through the same development plan and make progress at the rate that their ability allows.

Cross Curricular

The National Rebound Therapy Consultancy states that in addition to the benefits listed above, Rebound Therapy is an ideal vehicle for cross curricular teaching; with the potential for teaching such things as numeracy, colour recognition, positioning (left, right, backwards, forwards, clockwise and anticlockwise), communication, social awareness and consideration of others.

They further state that the unique properties of the trampoline offer ample opportunities for everybody to enhance movement patterns.

Inclusive

The work is intrinsically motivating and enjoyable and returns high value in therapeutic terms for the time and the effort involved.

The fact that the activity is so enjoyable enables it to be used as a motivational aid to learning. Many teachers also report increased concentration and willingness to learn in the classroom following a Rebound session.

Rebound Therapy founder Eddy Anderson recently received a comment from a headmaster that having a dozen of his staff trained as Rebound Therapy trainers was the most effective training expenditure he had ever commissioned, in terms of measurable outcome from his students.

National Rebound Therapy Consultancy

The official body of reference for Rebound Therapy in the UK is the National Rebound Therapy Consultancy. They are responsible for the development and provision of certificated staff training courses for schools and centres throughout the UK. The courses have received accreditation from the Professional Development Board for Physical Education which is supported by afPE.

For more information about Rebound Therapy and staff training courses please visit www.ReboundTherapy.org email info@ReboundTherapy.org or phone 01342 870543.