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ADHD & Autism

Christopher King

I coach an U10s team who are one of higher ability teams within the region/league.

I've coached this team from minikickers and spent a lot of time and effort with them, mainly due to the enjoyment of it but also to create a positive and unified atmosphere for players and parents.

In February I accepted a new child to the team. He is a very confident and chatty child and, outside of the game, mixes well with the other children. However, within the game he will get extremely frustrated with others "not passing" or "not passing better" or basically anything that he feels is either someones fault or something doesnt go his way.

Technically, he is not the strongest player so his own ability often lets him down which again, is another trigger of frustration, as he believes he is the same level as the better players in the group.

I've learned from his parents that he has ADHD and a form of autism/aspergers, which would align to the way he interacts socially with others.

My 'problem' is that these frustrations in matches can spill out into big tensions between him and other players, often leading to them getting angry, frustrated themselves and throwing them completely off their game because they are upset.

I've tried talking with both parties when flare-ups occur... about controlling emotions, having empathy as well as technical advice about what they can do to influence the game differently.

Doesnt seem to help as the same will happen the following week.

My main concern is that this child will begin to split a group of talented footballers as they will not want to play with this child. They will end up not progressing because they either dont come or dont focus because they've been annoyed by this child.

So basically, how do you deal with the disabilty of one child such that it doesnt negatively affect all/several of the others? Baring in mind I have a responsibility to them as much as I do to this child. 

I do not have the capacity to offer 1-on-1 coaching.

Parents
  • 0

    Hi Chris, 

    As a coach of an U14 team who has integrated a couple of children with Autism into our mainstream team and a parent of two boys with Autism and 1 of those also ADHD I have a bit of experience which I am willing to share, however I will be honest up front that every child is different and what has worked for us may not for you.

    The first thing I would did was to sit down with the child and parent and ask if they were happy for us to share the fact that they had Autism.  I also explained to both child and parent about expected behaviours in line with the club's code of conduct and explained reasonable adjustments can be made, but expectations would be that they would learn to adapt their behaviour where they can, as it is in other areas of their lives (such as school etc).   

    Once I had this, I sat the team down and explained that integrating conditions into our team was a core aim for football on a whole, but that it will only work with everyone involved buying into that.  Once I had the team on board, we arranged a short team event at the clubhouse, provided a few nibbles and drinks and we gave a short chat to everyone about behaviours with Autism, how the brain works in a different way for them at times and often behaviours like telling the truth in a factual way, can often been seen socially as unacceptable in a social way or even at times aggressive when suffering from overloads/meltdowns.  All of those behaviours are pretty much out of the individuals control, and more often than not the comments are not meant to offend.  We also explained that reasonable adjustments were being made by the club, but also that the players with this condition were also committed to learning "masking"  behaviours where they could, but that these take time and will need support from the whole team.  

    We also ran a fun exercise to show how much extra processing the brain does for Autistic people before we start giving lots of extra instructions for them to process.

    1. Got a clipboard, paper and pen for each child sitting down.

    2, Got them to write a paragraph from a well know poem over 30 seconds.

    3. Everyone shared their results (which looked fine)

    4. Then got everyone to stand up

    5. Took the paper off the clipboard, and put the clipboard down

    6. Got them to move their head side to side continuously, and stand on one leg

    7. then using their non dominant hand got them to re-write the paragraph over 30 seconds

    After mush laughter, falling over, pens going everywhere we explained that the level of brain activity to do that was less than an Autistic brain is processing before being asked to do one instruction, the reactions were of amazement and an understanding that shouting multiple things during a match from Parents, coaches. players is so much more overwhelming for them, and if we are asking them to learn to mask behaviours on top of that then we have to help them by adapting our behaviours as well.  

    We also explained to the team that this was going to be a marathon, not a sprint for all the pieces to fall into place, but with everyone's understanding and commitment we will get there.

    The end result for us two seasons later, if one of our boys is becoming overloaded we as coaches are not the first to put the virtual  supportive arm around them it is their teammates doing it, on an occasion where the ref made a howler of a decision and then did not like the factual question why form one of those children, it was our captain who ran to ref and explained the situation and that no offence was meant, and I couldn't be more proud of how well the team have integrated after a few few bumpy months at the beginning to w couple years later and our end of season presentations when one boy won the Parent's Player of the Year award and the other won the Coaches' Player of the Year Award. 

    This approach worked for us, but may not for you, as a higher skilled team (we are a lower division team than yours) the reaction may be different from your team, but equally they more often than not will surprise you... good luck in finding a solution that works for everyone. 

  • 0 in reply to David Pembry

    David, your story resonates with me greatly, if only more coaches were like you.

    I really respect they you decided to take the time to educate the wider group rather than alienate the children with autism.

    I’m sure this has been highly beneficial to all involved and will make a huge difference to the way the other children look at things going forward into adulthood in terms of understanding and inclusiveness, as well as making the children with SEN needs feel accepted and supported. 

Reply
  • 0 in reply to David Pembry

    David, your story resonates with me greatly, if only more coaches were like you.

    I really respect they you decided to take the time to educate the wider group rather than alienate the children with autism.

    I’m sure this has been highly beneficial to all involved and will make a huge difference to the way the other children look at things going forward into adulthood in terms of understanding and inclusiveness, as well as making the children with SEN needs feel accepted and supported. 

Children
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