How sports education creates empathy for children with special needs

Children with special needs like autism experience a high rate of bullying and often are excluded from activities like sports. Matthew Certner, cofounder of SNAP (snapclinics.org), discusses SNAP's efforts to teach empathy.

Transcript

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MATTHEW CERTNER: There's a lot of bullying that goes on in schools and at recess. I mean, the University of California just did a report that 46% of children who have autism

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have experienced bullying. So we wanted to combat that. And we even looked into it further. We found out the number is a lot higher. The Interactive Autism Network reported the number's actually

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around 63%. So we said, why can't we hit it at the root cause? So why can't we find out at what age can we teach children to be accepting of everyone?

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[GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC] The kid was playing t-ball, and parents and other teammates

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were calling for the coach to skip his turn at bat. We're talking about t-ball-- 10, 11-year-old kids.

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That's not the point of the game, right? It's not. And coaches today are unintentionally callous. Kids are way too competitive.

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And that's the root of it. That's where we wanted to start SNAP. Special Needs Athletic Programs, it's a nonprofit in Morristown, New Jersey.

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We started it back in 2009 when a close family friend was diagnosed with autism. It started with athletics. We saw that our family friend really

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wasn't being included when it came to recreational leagues, or even just in school, at lunch, and at recess.

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And we knew that we can provide not only him, but his friends with a team, an opportunity to be a part of something. And it quickly grew.

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And what started as just sports clinics grew into an educational platform as well. It was the family friend that you do everything with--

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family, vacations, family dinners, holidays. I was always big with sports. So was my brother. And seeing someone that we know not being included

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and seeing other kids unintentionally callous when it comes to sports, we knew that we could do something,

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and we did. And we saw such a tremendous impact in this kid's life. And that's-- that's kind of where it started.

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And it's only grown from there, from 2 to 3 kids up to 10, 11 kids. And then all of a sudden, we had waitlists,

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and we had to expand into more planes in Warren, and Lodi, and throughout New Jersey. Now, it's in six other states.

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So in 2010, we saw that there was definitely a need to make an educational initiative. And that's where we kind of branched not only

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to include sports, but we branched away to include education. We found that volunteers at our clinics were learning so much that we wanted to implement that

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at a greater level, and to have every third and fifth grader throughout more school district in New Jersey have these trainings.

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So we created these hands-on modules with the help of teachers, and parents, and educators. We created what's now the SNAP Sensitivity Trainings.

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So what these kids do is they experience what it's like to have a disability. We teach them empathy over sympathy. They use mirrors, and balance balls, and other techniques

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to feel what it's like. And at the end of the day, they know what it's like to be bullied, so they're not going to bully themselves.

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So for example, through the use of a mirror, and a maze, and a piece of paper, we are able to simulate what it's like to have dyslexia.

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So students will look into the mirror and try and write their name. It's extremely frustrating. And our mentors, who are now students

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who have done the training previously, plus a gym teacher or myself, will add to the frustration. We'll ask them, what's taking so long,

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or, why can't you write your name, or, can you imagine doing a standardized test like this? And the kids get very frustrated.

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Other examples are we do balance techniques. We have students try to play a simple game of catch while standing on a dynadisc or a balance board.

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They see how hard it is to do an everyday activity that most of them take for granted. And it's amazing to see these kids have trouble with that.

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After they do these trainings, they're-- they're less likely to actually bully other kids or to tease other kids who are

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having trouble. [AUDIO LOGO]