Taxonomy and physical health inequalities in people with learning disabilities

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) is a taxonomic framework that provides a biopsychosocial understanding of intellectual disabilities (ID). It was hypothesised that the use of the ICF would help highlight physical health difficulties in people with ID and promote a wider, more holistic view of ID. There was an additional practical aim concerning widening competing categories of athletes with ID to include physical health. The study consisted of two stages. In Stage one the ICF-based questionnaire was developed with an expert panel. Stage two aimed to test this using a naturalistic, cross-sectional design, between three pre-existing groups: elite athletes competing through INAS; sub-elite athletes; and athletes with Down syndrome (DS). Seventy-seven athletes took part. The results suggested that a separate competing category for athletes with DS should be considered, as this group could currently be considered disadvantaged in terms of their physical health when compared to INAS athletes. It was hoped this research would inspire further debate on a taxonomy for intellectual disabilities and the potential advantages of this, particularly in helping to ensure physical health problems in this population are not overlooked

Imagination, creativity and the importance of transport planes

Some years ago I used to fly an old DC3 Dakota transport plane. It was pre-World War Two and whilst the skin had been repaired, there was still some damage to bits of the airframe. Keeping oil pressure up in the starboard engine was always a problem and the large tyres, although always good for rough airstrips, tended to give bouncy landings. But then it would be tea-time and I had to go in. All the flights were solo and nearly all commercial and, I remember, involved long sections flying over the sea or jungle with my fingers crossed. But then, in Sir Francis Chichester’s book the Lonely Sea and the Sky I read his description of ‘aiming off’ to locate Pacific islands – and it worked! Every time! In late summer there were apples on the tree and the DC3 went away for maintenance. In the long holidays I was free to cross miles of gorse heathland and explore the woods. I followed the Roman Road and smelled the charcoal burners and talked (in my head) to The Amazons. The fallen tree bridging the river was the same one as I saw in the foothills of Our Everest Adventure by Sir John Hunt. But then the apples dropped and it was back to polar flying. Don’t all children do this? I was clearly very, very fortunate to have been so unrestricted and allowed to be a small boy playing what I now see as very gendered play. I wonder what it is actually like for the comparable generation nowadays? Even in 1937 Kurt Hahn described one of the Seven Sins of the modern age as the Decline in Memory and Imagination. It seems to me that the two greatest influences upon my imagination were stories and opportunities to wander. Freedom if you like

Dialogue, critique and creativity: some questions for the profession

Imagine the scene. You are sitting by a slipway on a sunny summers afternoon where a centre is running canoe rafting sessions for primary aged school children. There are three groups with three instructors and you can’t help eavesdropping. By the end of the afternoon three comments are stuck in your head. Instructor A: ‘That’s good, I have never thought of doing that before.’ Instructor B: ‘I know that’s really heavy. So let’s take a rest for a minute.’ Instructor C: (to the group) ‘Andy doesn’t have ideas, does he.’ Helper: ‘Oh, he’s a bit ‘special’. Is he?’ (laughs from group). Small splinters of dialogue. How we speak is important and each exchange illustrates one facet of why. Such exchanges are crucial to helping our clients develop through what we do

Effective dialogue in outdoor work: ‘Let the mountains speak for themselves’ – so the saying goes

There is that special ‘something’ that happens when people and mountains meet. It is that ‘something’ that separates our work from being interactions between people alone and it is that which we value. However the work we do isn’t always carried on in silence and the saying itself confirms speaking and listening as being important in some way. How we speak and talk to colleagues and clients is obviously crucial, whether it’s formal instruction in safety procedures, the open discussion in decision-making or just the bonhomie of the other campfire. (Jones’ saying was a cry of exasperation at too much talking, it has to be said.) There are many models that have been derived to help our understanding of interactions. We might be consciously competent (Noel Burch 1979), democratic (Tannenbaum and Schmidt, 1958; Gastil, 1994), in an adult ego-state (Berne, 1964) and in a coaching mode (Hersey & Blanchard, 1972). These certainly have a place in supporting our observation and explanation of behaviour, but they are none the less hypothetical models that are ascribed to observations. There is also a tendency to take these models, or worse still one model, as orthodoxy and lever our interpretations of events to fix the models and not the other way round, not only giving spurious interpretations but also as was never intended by their authors. The strength of feeling of their disciples does rather support this view, whilst the models were not themselves based on reliable data but were sometimes derived from interpretations of small numbers of people who were in some cases in psychotherapeutic settings

Connection with nature in the UK during the COVID-19 lockdown

This study explores experiences of nature during the UK COVID-19 lockdown and associated changes in attitudes to nature, nature connection and pro-environmental behaviours

Sports classification and athletes with intellectual disabilities: Measuring health status using a questionnaire based on the international classification of functioning, disability and health

Most people with intellectual disabilities have comorbid health conditions, which will impact optimization of sporting performance. Classification is used in Paralympic events to ensure that those with similar levels of functional ability compete fairly against each other. An evidence-based approach needs to be developed for athletes with intellectual disabilities to be classified in relation to their overall functional capacity into competition groups of similar ability. This research builds on previous work using the taxonomy of The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) to group athletes with intellectual disabilities into comparable competition groups as an approach to Paralympic classification. Three groups of athletes-Virtus, Special Olympics, and Down syndrome-are compared using the ICF questionnaire indicating functional health status in relation to sporting performance. The questionnaire was found to discriminate between athletes with Down syndrome and other athletes, and an approach to using a cutoff score to develop competition classes is explored

A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for: an overview of outdoor studies at St Martin's College

Sea-going vessels come in all shapes and sizes with different hulls and rigging. Different people view them through different eyes. The vessel that is Outdoor Studies at St Martinʼs College is one of those well-loved craft of indeterminate class that has been so constantly trimmed and re-fitted, it isnʼt the vessel it was. However it handles well in most conditions and the crews pass through happily enough. The keel was laid over thirty years ago by Colin Mortlock, and was designed for small crews and high performance, an Advanced Certificate in Adventure Education. She sailed far and wide and the crews weathered well, sailing demanding courses under a strong navigator. The strengths of this approach were soon recognised and offers came to add a new dimension to Initial Teacher Training at Charlotte Mason College, developing in student teachers those characteristics that constitute a well-rounded crewmember