Disabled Scouts in my Troop

[Meechgalanne]

In my troop, we have many kids with disabilities. The majority is ADD or ADHD. We have two scouts who are more seriously disabled. One who is wheelchair bound and another who is blind and deaf. The wheelchair bound scout has morely left us due to college and his internship with Coke-Cola. The other is about 13 years old. I think my troop has adjusted well with him. Except heres the problem. My troop is quite big. Over 40 members. Of all ages. The problem is getting games he can play. So ive been trying to get ideas that would be fun for him as well as everyone else. So recently, ive done a game where he sits on the floor with a book in front of him and there are two teams to his sides. I call a number and they have to get the book with out him pointing them out. So this was working except hes somewhat deaf and coulndt hear them. So he used the floor vibrations to help, but people were tricking him by stomping their feet and so on. So that game didnt work out very well. The next game i had is called the electrc fence where patrols have to strategically get the whole patrol over a rope with out touching it or going under. It was working awesomely until his patrol launched a member over the rope right into the disabled scout. So im lost now. Any ideas?

[OldGreyEagle]

Tough spot and welcome. I also come from a large troop, about 70 scouts. We have plenty of ADD and ADHD scouts as well. For summer camp, the pediatrician Committee chair has two full size foot lockers, one for her stuff, the other for the prescriptions. Then we have our three "walker boys" Three scouts who duw to various ailments need either a walker or arm crutches to move around. One of them was elected as SPL a few years back and is just a few merit badges short of Eagle. To include your scout you could have him lead a game of steal the bacon having him shout out the numbers or make up large flash cards with the numbers on the and he randomly pulls them out of a box. Or, depending on his sense of balance, you have him stand in the middle of the room he has a rope and starts spinning it in a circle, the troop is arranged around him and must jump over the rope. All he has to do is spin, and when he feels something hit the rope he stops and the person(s) touched by the rope are out. SOmetimes we tie a pillow in the end of the rope to help it spin.

 

You might also challenge the scouts to come up with a game that includes the scout, they could surprise you with the results

[Meechgalanne]

alright. I like these ideas. We did the rope game a while back but someone got hurt, but a pillow on the end is probaly better.

[Kudu]

A collection of 124 games for disabled Scouts can be found at The Inquiry Net, see:

 

http://www.inquiry.net/outdoor/games/disabled

 

They are indexed into the following categories:

 

Games for Deaf Boy Scouts, Cubs, Children

Games for the Blind

Games for those Confined to Bed

Games for the Ambulatory (Able to Walk)

Games for the Developmentally Disabled

 

Kudu

 

[Meechgalanne]

Wow thanks a lot man. You guys are really helpful. Its really nice to see that people care about kids who are disabled. Thank you