{"id":51337,"date":"2024-06-21T15:56:58","date_gmt":"2024-06-21T14:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/?page_id=51337"},"modified":"2024-06-21T16:11:03","modified_gmt":"2024-06-21T15:11:03","slug":"top-tips-for-working-with-support-workers-in-a-sport-or-physical-activity-session","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/our-services\/activities-for-disabled-people\/sport\/sport-training-and-resources\/sport-training-resources-professionals\/top-tips-for-working-with-support-workers-in-a-sport-or-physical-activity-session\/","title":{"rendered":"Top tips for working with support workers in a sport or physical activity session"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/sense-workforce-top-tips.pdf\">Download a PDF version of this page<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Support workers play a crucial role in ensuring people with complex disabilities have a meaningful experience when taking part in sport and physical activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A support worker who works with someone regularly will have built up a relationship with that person, allowing them to understand and interpret their communication and behaviour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a coach, it\u2019s vital you utilise a support worker\u2019s knowledge about the person they<br>are supporting, to help communicate your instructions and adapt your activity so<br>that it\u2019s appropriate for the participant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We asked support workers how coaches and instructors can work with them<br>effectively, to ensure the people they support have the best possible experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The top tips they gave were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"is-style-secondary-bullets wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Talk to them<\/strong> to find out more about the participants they are supporting. Ask questions \u2013 even if they seem obvious.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Build rapport <\/strong>by having friendly, informal conversations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Take time before the session starts to ask how the day is going so far. <\/strong>A busy morning or difficult journey to the session may impact how the participant they are supporting engages with the session.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Give an overview of what you will be delivering. <\/strong>This will help support workers consider how they can support participants in the session.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Listen to them.<\/strong> They know the participants best, and can advise on what may or may not be appropriate for the person they support to take part in.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Make the session fun<\/strong> and engaging for the support worker too! If they are having a positive experience, it\u2019s more likely that the person they support will too.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Ask for feedback<\/strong> from support workers at the end of each session. Did they feel the activity was engaging for the person they support? How could it be improved, and what worked well?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Equally, <strong>tell a support worker when they are doing a good job<\/strong> of supporting someone to do an activity. Be specific \u2013 what is it they are doing that\u2019s working well?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Reassure them. <\/strong>They might never have done the activity before, and might feel nervous about supporting someone else to do it, or doing it in front of other people.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We asked support workers how coaches and instructors can work with them effectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"parent":48052,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"content_label":[],"class_list":["post-51337","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51337\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/48052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"content_label","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_label?post=51337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}