Belonging to a team, scoring a point and feeling the exhilaration of putting a tick in the win column has always been touted as a positive, beneficial experience as kids develop and grow. While most parents are aware that their child won’t be going to the Olympics, the time spent practicing and playing is well worth all the life skills children develop when they play sports.
For parents of special needs and disabled children, sports can be even more vital – and important to the entire family. Imagine Pediatric Therapy had the honor of speaking with Jim Gallo, a founding member of the Chicago Wheelchair Bulls and their annual Kids Day, and a passionate advocate for disabled and special needs children. Jim was paralyzed after suffering a spinal cord injury at the age of 18 when he was hit by a drunk driver. He talked to us about what sports have meant to him personally and what he’s seen it mean to the lives of the children he’s coached and mentored.
Jim says, “[Before my accident,] when I was a kid and through high school, I was a five-sport athlete. I was probably just an average one that had his moments. As a wheelchair athlete, I was good…with some great moments. I was good because I wanted so badly to be good, that I trained all the time. By “all the time” I mean I was on the court from 11:00 at night until 1:00AM…And I did this for decades – even the year I retired when I was at the raisin-like old age of 46.”
“But,” Jim continues, “when I look back at all my years in sports since I was nine years old, I don’t think about game winners, or missing a last-second shot, I think about my teammates. Some as far back as third grade are still some of my best friends fifty-five years later.”
Long-lasting and meaningful relationships with teammates is just one of the reasons parents should encourage their special needs child to play sports. Jim explains:
Learning how to be a teammate. Jim says, “When your child plays a team sport, they learn to be accountable to their teammates. As a teammate, sometimes they have to take the lead and sometimes they follow. And when they do, they pick up life skills they can use forever. Being on a team or having athletic goals teaches kids to be committed to achieving something. They learn to be on time. They learn to celebrate someone else’s achievements. And maybe the most important, they learn that someone is relying on them and they have a responsibility to not let that someone down.”
Self confidence and self worth. “When I became disabled at 18 years old, I struggled,” says Jim. “I wasn’t comfortable in my own skin. I didn’t feel like I fit in with many of the guys I grew up with. When I got into sports, I felt like it lifted me above the stereotyped “guy in a wheelchair.” It made me feel like I was less disabled. Pushing a wheelchair up and down a court for hours, or pushing on a track, I got incredibly strong and felt like there wasn’t anything I couldn’t do. I could go up and down stairs, and get in places where doors were too narrow. But best of all – I never worried about not being able to do something.”
Personal relationships. Burgeoning self-confidence helps your child build more and stronger relationships. “I wasn’t shy after my accident as much as I was withdrawn. I just didn’t want to be around people. I could feel the uneasiness; there were some people that had no qualms asking inappropriate questions or making stupid comments. ”Really? You can dress yourself?” I wish I was kidding. And I wanted nothing to do with wheelchair sports. I thought to myself that I was a “real athlete” not one of those “wheelchair guys.” But when the Director of Disabled Sports at University of Illinois finally convinced me to come out to play football and I caught my first pass, it all came back to me. All those sports, all that adrenaline… I was back! I became more outgoing.” Jim laughs, “My kids say I can make friends in an elevator. People are often apprehensive around the disabled simply because they’re afraid they might say something that is taken the wrong way or might be offensive. So I take the lead and start talking.
Sports puts special needs children on par with mainstream classmates – Jim noted that when kids are in school, they come in on Monday and talk about how their sports teams did that weekend. When special needs kids play sports, they can talk about their sports team just like their classmates.
Much needed exercise. Many special needs and disabled children don’t get enough exercise. Jim says, “Getting your child in athletic or recreational activities is a giant step (no pun intended) to keeping them on a healthy track… and of course, it gets them off their screens.”
Friendship and camaraderie. There has been a push since the mid-1990s to have kids with special needs attend their neighborhood schools, so disabled kids are now spread across all the schools in the district. While there are enormous benefits to mainstreaming, special needs kids may not be able to spend time with kids who have similar experiences to their own. Disabled sports gives your child the opportunity to benefit from both of these worlds. Jim confirms this. “I have childhood friends whom I originally met in 3rd grade at our first baseball practice and I have friends from wheelchair basketball that are still like brothers to me. In both cases, we talk no less than weekly and have a meal together every couple of months. I even have friends who I played against! I am blessed to be around such great people. I can say without hesitation that my life is better because of them. That’s what your child will get when you put them in sports.”
Kids aren’t the only ones who benefit
“What few people talk about is what sports participation does for parents,” Jim says. “As the parent of a disabled child, your disabled child gets more help from you, and can be favored more than your other children, because, well, you think they need it to survive. You are bombarded by fears of “how will my child take care of themselves when they are older?” or “will my child find love or are they destined to be lonely their whole life?” and “who will ever hire them?” When you witness the evolution, confidence, strength, and growth your child gets from sports and recreation participation, your fears will be greatly diminished. Your whole family will grow stronger and more positively.”
How To Get Involved
In Illinois, Special Recreation Associations are part of our park districts providing sports and recreation opportunities for special needs and disabled kids and adults. Their participants may have physical, intellectual or emotional disabilities – anything from spina bifida to autism to Downs Syndrome and everything in between. Jim says, “SRA programs cover everything from wheelchair sports, to Special Olympics, to learning workshops, and even dances are offered by the SRAs.” There are 31 SRAs in Illinois, from as far south as Decatur and as far north as Zion.
Oak Lawn’s SRA serves Bridgeview, Burbank, Crestwood, Evergreen Park and six other communities. South Suburban Special Recreation in Tinley Park, for example, has hundreds of programs for twenty-one communities like Tinley Park, Homewood Flossmoor, Oak Forest, Country Club Hills and more. Lincolnway SRA serves eight communities.
“On the Wheelchair Bulls,” says Jim, “we had events just for kids with disabilities so that the players and kids could spend time together. Because this was the Michael Jordan era, the Bulls were big and that spilled over to the Wheelchair Bulls. Moreover, the disabled kids thought the Wheelchair Bulls were the Michael Jordans of wheelchair basketball. The wheelchair players stressed to the kids that they too could be world-class wheelchair athletes. It also gave parents confidence that their kids’ lives could be just like any non-disabled kids, with families, careers, and achievements.”
“When I was a kid, my mom worked for a car dealership and members of the Chicago Cubs baseball team would come in. She would call us, and my brother and I would hop on our bikes and race over for an autograph. One time, after seeing Cub icon Ernie Banks, we were getting back on our bikes and I said to my brother, “Wouldn’t it be great if, when we were older, little kids would hop on their bikes just to come get our autographs?” Twenty years later playing for the Wheelchair Bulls, after one of our events for kids, the kids lined up for our autographs after the game and then it hit me – I got what I always wanted!”
Sports can make an enormous difference in the lives of special needs children. To get started and find the Special Recreation Association nearest you, go to Specialrecreation.org and click on “Find My Services.”
