Getting fit, having fun and learning skills

Yehoshua Fineberg, Shon Hamou and Joshua Darhe are pedaling stationary bikes viewing screens that are showing their routes through a selected path with a specific degree of physical difficulty as Josselyn Flores-Hernandez and Stephen Paghidas are walking the treadmill as an audio system pumps out upbeat music.
Darhe finishes with the stationary bike and takes a turn with the Wii video game pretending to snowboard. Fineberg dismounts from his stationary bike seat and shoots a ball at one of the two basketball hoops mounted to the wall.
Also inside the colorfully appointed Lawrence High School adaptive gym is an elliptical workout machine, a Sci-Fit machine, a Nexersys boxing machine, a changeable swing apparatus and other assorted fitness equipment.
Welcome to school physical education in the 21st century. Using a $75,000 federal grant for special education, the district outfitted a room with this equipment for the Life Skills students — ages 13 to 16 — who have significant cognitive impairments. The overall program stresses learning independent living skills, along with academics. Physical education is federally mandated for all students.
“It’s important to introduce children to physical fitness,” said Lawrence High Principal Dr. Jennifer Lagnado, as she stood in the room from where the students have a view of the football field and running track. “Being fit helps support academics. This is the beginning of an overhaul of the physical education program. We will also update the equipment for the general education students.

Exercises are incorporated into the Life Skills students’ individualized education programs (IEPs) that are created to meet their specific needs. IEPs and the need for adaptive physical education is determined by the district’s Committee on Special Education based on assessments of the student by the faculty.
“In here, we have the kids work independently and do specific lessons depending on class size,” said physical education teacher Patrick Leary. “We want to teach them the value of being physically fit and they can try everything without a fear of failure.”
Along with riding the stationary bikes together or dancing or using the Wii, social connections are made. Darhe and Paghidas celebrate birthdays within a few days of each other, and Leary and the students keep track of the count down. The occupational and physical therapists who work with the students conduct their therapy in the adaptive gym.
“I’m having fun and losing weight,” said Paghidas, who said he has lost 50 pounds since he began using the treadmill. “This is great.”
“I like it a lot,” said Fineberg, adding he loves to play basketball.
Showing a reporter a video, Leary said that learning mixes with fun as several students were dancing to the Wii’s Dance Revolution program during a previous class. “In all aspects of what we do it has been a great help and a game changer,” he said, about the adaptive gym. “We have a lot of fun in here and help these kids do things better.”