Strong Bones, Strong Athletes

Transcription

1 Strong Bones, Strong Athletes Lesson Plan Activity Description: An important component of the Health Promotion Venue is to provide educational opportunities to promote health. The Strong Bones, Strong Athletes section outlines the primary educational messages to promote bone health. Included are ideas for visual tools to enhance the experience. Although not a game, this is an interactive, facilitated discussion. This instruction plan includes four different activities designed to promote the key messages for bone health: Loss of Bone Easel, Foods I Like that Build Strong Bones, Activities that Build Strong Bones, and Changes I Can Make to Build Stronger Bones. It is not necessary to include all of these activities. Choose the activities that will fit your environment and athletes best. Purpose: The purpose of the Strong Bones, Strong Athletes discussion is to introduce athletes to key messages that promote bone health. In the media, bone health is seen as a concern for older women. However, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are at a greater risk for bone health issues than the general public. Therefore, it is important to introduce athletes, parents, support personnel, and coaches to targeted approaches for promoting strong bones as early as possible. The key messages for the Strong Bones venue are: Message: Good nutrition helps build strong bones and helps keep them strong all your life. Message: Being active helps keep your bones strong and your balance good, so you don t fall as easily. Message: If bones are not strong, they can break easier.

2 HP Volunteer Objectives: Using this instruction plan, volunteers will be able to: 1. Present and explain, using visual tools and plain language, the key Strong bones messages to athletes. 2. Use principles around Universal Design for both physical and educational accessibility to set up a functional and pleasant Strong Bones Venue. Athlete Objectives: Through participation in this activity, athletes will: 1. Match, select, or name foods and beverages that promote bone health. 2. Be able to describe or show physical activities that enhance bone health. 3. Choose one step they will take to promote bone health from the Choose to Change bone health card. 4. Indentify a healthy, strong bone using a model for bone health (see materials). Activity 1: Loss of Bone Materials Needed: 1. Food pictures with foods, beverages and supplemental sources of vitamin D 2. Food pictures with foods, beverages and supplemental sources of vitamin K 3. Ther-a-band strips plus instruction card 4. Loss of a Bone Easel (see below for ordering information). 5. Photos of sports that are weight-bearing and available through your local program. Method or Activity Instructions: Discuss the importance of strong bones in being able to get around, handle falling, and so on. Have the participant guess which of the two bones is stronger. Discuss the visual difference between strong and weak bones. The following are some suggestions for building a conversation around the Loss of Bone Easel. Conversation Starters Can you tell which of these bones is broken? How does it look compared to the Key Messages to Include Eat foods that promote bone health. These are foods that include Calcium, Vitamin D, and

3 other bone? Vitamin K. What sorts of activities help to keep your bones nice and strong? What sports do you participate in that are good for your bones? Weight bearing activities such as running, walking, jumping, balancing on one foot. Adaptations: Those staffing the educational booth need to be able to adapt their educational delivery to the capability of the athletes through questions, observation of non verbal behaviors, and expressed level of interest and communication competence of the athlete. Some ideas include: Bringing visual tools (food models, bone board) to eye-level. Consider having photos or photo cards of foods and activities that will answer the questions. Pointing to pictures on the food cards. Pointing to weight-bearing sports on food cards. Having athletes take (select/choose) the foods they like and put them in another area of the table. (group the foods they like). Having athletes take (select/choose) the weight bearing activities they enjoy and put them in another area of the table. (group the activities they enjoy). If photos are laminated, bring a dry erase pen so athletes can mark or circle the foods they like with a dry-erase pen. Activity 2: Identifying foods that Promote Strong Bones Materials Needed: 1. Nasco plastic food models including 8 oz milk, 4 oz milk, yogurt, cheese, 2. Empty cartons of orange juice fortified with calcium and vitamin D 3. Food pictures with foods, beverages and supplemental sources of vitamin D 4. Food pictures with foods, beverages and supplemental sources of vitamin K Method or Activity Instructions: Food Models and Photos This activity provides a way for athletes to discover which foods they like to eat that are good for building strong bones. The following are some guides for discussions to promote learning and discovery. Combining educational topics with a hands-on activity or action is a good way to engage athletes in the learning process. Following up a hands-on activity with the I Choose to Change card for bone

4 health, offers a reminder of the activity and decisions made when the athlete returns home. Always encourage the athlete to talk about their decisions to improve bone health with the parent or caregiver. It helps them know what s going on! Teaching Tip: Generally speaking, athletes will not care about the actual vitamin or mineral in the foods (calcium, Vitamin D or K). They will take home the message, these are foods that build strong bones. Keep the message simple and strong. Those who want more information about how or why will ask. Too much information will confuse the message. Conversation Suggestions Take a look at these rubber foods. They re all foods that promote strong bones. Can you put the foods you like in this group over here? (Indicate a spot on the table) How often do you eat these foods? Action. Have the Nasco Food Models grouped together. Ask the athlete to group the foods he or she likes in that group of foods on to a plate, placemat, or another specific area on the table. Is there a food you would like to try? Which one? Put them over here. How often do you eat these foods you like? Did you know you need 2-4 servings a day of these foods for your bones? Have them take out foods they might like to try and put them in a different spot on the table. Wait for an answer. Any answer is Ok. Get a feel for how much influence they have on their food choices they may have very little. This guides your conversation. Ask the athlete to group together 2-4 servings of foods the athlete

5 What does that look like? (If appropriate) When can you add a new food that builds strong bones to your day? Here are four things you can do to keep your bones strong. Is there one you would like to do when you go home to keep your bones strong? likes. Listen carefully. Reinforce positive decisions and choices. Do not respond or correct those that are off-base. Show the I Choose To Change! I Choose Strong Bones Card. Read through the options on the card. If one resonates with the athlete, check the box. If you do not have plastic food models, use high quality photos (Visual Foods Photo Collection CD is a good choice) create printed sheets with a variety of foods that are good sources of either vitamin D and Vitamin K. Another option is to use the photo food models from the Dairy Council and pull out only those foods that are good sources of Vitamin D and Vitamin K. Do similar activities as described above to illustrate to the athlete the foods they already like that are good sources of vitamins that will promote strong bones. Learn how often they eat these foods to determine something of a food frequency. When talking about ways increase the amount of good sources of Vitamins D and K, consider looking for snack items rather than entrées or meals. Method or Activity Instructions: Sport and Activity Photos Using high quality photos, use the same technique to create a conversation about weight-bearing activities. Conversation Suggestions What sports are you involved with through Special Olympics? Action. Work with the athlete to find a photo of the sport and put it in a separate place This is a great sport for building strong bones. It helps you do this by.. Describe the actions in the sport that promote bone health (walking, running, jumping, and

6 so on). What other sports or activities are you involved in? Locate photos of those sports, if possible How often do you do this? Do you think this is helps build strong bones? Are there activities you would like to do? Let s see if we can find them. Locate the photos. Conversation Suggestions Action Try to learn about the frequency of activity and encourage a regular schedule. Are you willing to do this activity when you go home? If so, mark the box on the I Choose to Change card for bone health. Adaptations: Those staffing the educational booth need to be able to adapt their educational delivery to the capability of the athletes through questions, observation of non verbal behaviors, and expressed level of interest and communication competence of the athlete. Some ideas include: Bringing visual tools (food models or photo sheets) to eye-level. Consider having photos or photo cards of foods and activities that will answer the questions. Pointing to pictures on the food cards. Pointing to weight-bearing sports on food cards. Having athletes take (select/choose) the foods they like and put them in another area of the table. (group the foods they like). Having athletes take (select/choose) the weight bearing activities they enjoy and put them in another area of the table. (group the activities they enjoy). If photos are laminated, bring a dry erase pen so athletes can mark or circle the foods they like with a dry-erase pen.

7 Resources: 1. Dairy Council Google dairy council plus your state (e/g Dairy Council Montana phone) They may be able to help with materials, sometimes offering milk truck, dairy products, handouts) 2. MilkPep : Google MilkPep California merchandise to select incentives for enhancing your area including items like Got Milk posters, Frisbees, cups, lanyards for Milk Moustache photos, inflatable cows. 3. Visual Foods Photo Collection CD. Special orders for Special Olympics Clinical Directors through Phronesis Publishing ( 4. Picture This Professional Edition: Photo CD from Silver Lining Multimedia ( $ Nasco Food Models 6. Health Edco ext 295.) Order the bone loss easel here.