LD and High School Sports

You should contact the head coach of the sport that your child is wanting to play and talk to him or her about your child’s problem. Once the coach understands the problem he or she might be able to make some modifications in order to help your child’s ability to excell in that sport. Try to conact the coach and a special education teacher in your school system so that everybody can sit down and talk about the best situation for your child.

Your son’s coach needs to be informed about his learning difference. With the coach’s understanding, he or she should work with your son that will give him ideas that can help him remember different plays. It is important that your son stays active in his sports. Children with learning differnces often turn to outside activities that will make them shin in other areas. Talk with the coach and let him or her know the problem. And if the coach feels he or she needs to talk to a teacher to see what can be incorporated I am sure they will do what needs to be done! I am sure your son is not the only one who can’t remember, perhaps he will be able to help others too!
Regards,
A 2nd time around college student

I talked to an athletic director at a local middle school about your son’s problem. He suggested a good idea would be to talk to the head coach. He continued to say that his team modifies their offense just as a teacher modifies their lesson plans for some students.
Besides drawing up plays for your son to take home and study, a coach can do many other helpful things for his players. Depending on what position your son plays would determine how a coach would modify his offensive system. For example, if your son played offensive line a lineman who was positioned next to him would be available to answer a last second question about whom to block. If he was a running back a coach may incorporate calls such as “Ripple” which would mean motion right and “Lizzie” which would mean motion left. As with any football player, repetition is going to be the key for your son being successful and football practice is made up of a series of repetitive drills.
Learning Disabilities by Janet Lerner also list additional activities that might aid your son in building his auditory memory. One interesting suggestion is to give your son a series of numbers and ask questions about the series. An example would be the number series 1, 6, 7, 3,5. Then you might ask your son to write the second number. Another suggestion may be to work with your son on ordering events. You might want to read a short series of events. Next you could have your son retell the story having all the events in order. The activity might later aid when he is learning the order of motions or plays that his team is running. (297)
I think that playing sports will be great for your son and will also help to build his self-esteem. Good luck to your son and I hope one day to hear that he is a pro athlete.