Hi Everyone,
I have joined the online community as I am a football coach for an U13's team that contains some young men with ASD.
I currently have one player, who has been diagnosed with ASD & ADHD (his mother was kind enough to share his EHCP with me) who I have been working with for the past season ~9 months. Through reading the EHCP & developing a relationship I have been able to ensure the sessions are accessible for him and also to implement strategies to help him maintain positive behaviour.
What I have been really struggling with, however, is how to encourage and develop teamwork and social skills for this young man. He will quite often say and act negatively with others eg making comments to wind people up, suggesting the ball shouldn't be passed to what he perceives as "weaker" players and on occasions even kicking out/showing physical aggressive behaviour with team mates. Recently there has been one team mate in particular who will always have some back and forth trying to wind each other up/upset and generally I believe it relates to being almost the leader/best player in the team. It is starting to get to the other player, and I have phone calls from his dad (who luckily has been super understanding) about how it is affecting his son's enjoyment of football.
I really really want to be able to include the player with ASD and help him as football is one of his escapes and enjoyment and I can deal with any issues this may cause me as a coach (behaviour, not listening, not playing his position etc) but I need to make sure that football is a safe and enjoyable space for everyone in the team. Is anyone able to help about how to encourage positive social & teamwork behaviour?
When it gets to things that can't be tolerated in a team, I do let him know exactly that in a calm but serious way (not shouting at him or getting angry) and also jumping on his positive actions with huge amounts of praise, but unfortunately his "rivalry" with the other player continues to be growing unhealthily, for both of them.
Any ideas or support would be hugely welcome as I just want to ensure I can help both the boy with ASD and the rest of the team enjoy their football.
TIA!
CPS
