Updated 7/9/2018: the following is focused on using What, How, Why, and Where to teach the Skill of your lesson – it’s a nice “additional info” post to the Teaching the Skill post. There is also the Teaching Techniques: Hows & Whys post about using those as a teaching technique throughout your lesson. It’s very similar, but this post … Continue reading
Tagged with teaching tips …
The Impact of Horse Movement and Handling on the Rider
The following notes are from the 2014 PATH Intl Conference seminar “The Effects of Equine Handling on the Biomechanics of Mounted Human Subjects” given by Celia Bower, PT, HPCS, and Margo Dewkett, Master Instructor, of Windridge Therapeutic Equestrian Center of East TX, who has been utilizing hippotherapy for 10 years active in researching efforts to validate equine movement … Continue reading
Teaching Tips: Social Stories
Social Stories What A “Social Story” is a story used to model appropriate social interaction by describing a situation with relevant social cues, other’s perspectives, and a suggested appropriate response. Why Helps teach students routines, expectations, and behavioral standards in an alternative format (story, visual, etc.) Can be personalized to individual behavioral intervention Particularly helpful/popular … Continue reading
Adaptations and Teaching Techniques for Riders with Severe Disabilities, Part 6: Example Riders, Cont.
Adaptations and Teaching Techniques for Riders with Severe Disabilities, Part 6: Example Riders, Cont. Rider #3 Rider Info Age: 9 Gender: Male Diagnosis: Mitochondrial Ecephalmyopathy Mitochondrial Ecephalmyopathy is a condition caused by mutations in the genes in mitochondrial DNA, affecting the brain and nervous system (“encephalo”) and muscles (“myopathy”). It can cause muscle weakness, exercise intolerance, hearing loss, … Continue reading
Adaptations and Teaching Techniques for Riders with Severe Disabilities, Part 5: Example Riders
Adaptations and Teaching Techniques for Riders with Severe Disabilities, Part 5: Example Riders Rider #1 Much thanks to my coworker Annie Cornette from PALS for writing the following about one of our riders with whom she has had much success. Rider Info Age: 13 Gender: Female Diagnosis: Cerebral Palsy (spastic) Additional details/conditions: increased spasticity in the lower and … Continue reading
Adaptations and Teaching Techniques for Riders with Severe Disabilities, Part 3: Cognitive Challenges
Adaptations and Teaching Techniques for Riders with Severe Disabilities, Part 3: Cognitive Challenges As an instructor the first thing you should address is the physical postural challenges of a rider, because only when they are in good posture can they correctly apply the aids. However, posture is impacted by both the rider’s physical condition as … Continue reading
Adaptations and Teaching Techniques for Riders with Severe Disabilities, Part 2: Physical Challenges
Adaptations and Teaching Techniques for Riders with Severe Disabilities, Part 2: Physical Challenges For all riders, posture is the first thing you address because only when you have good relaxed position on the horse are you able to use the aids separately to correctly cue the horse. For riders with severe disabilities we do the … Continue reading
Adaptations and Teaching Techniques for Riders with Severe Disabilities, Part 1: Introduction
Introduction I am excited to share with you this huge compilation of notes on teaching riders with moderate to severe disabilities. While the therapeutic riding instructor is to focus on teaching riding skills, the truth is that sometimes you will get students who cannot balance on their own and may never understand the connection between … Continue reading
Your motivation for teaching
I think all instructors should ask themselves: “Why do I teach? What is my motivation?” Your reasons affect the type of instructor you are, your understanding of your role, the quality of your instruction, the focus of your lessons, your knowledge of skills, the types of students you work best with, how you interact with students, and your resiliency in hard times. … Continue reading
Preventing Instructor Burnout
One of the best seminars I attended at the 2014 PATH Intl Conference was “Preventing Instructor Burnout” on the Community Connections Day. I wanted to share a list of ideas from the discussion in hopes that it will help everyone everywhere struggling with these issues. (Source) From “Interactive Forum for Preventing Instructor Burnout” by Jennifer E. Donahue, MST, PATH Intl … Continue reading