By Denise Roza | Project Leader
Physical Education Classes Are a Ticket to a New Life: Beck's Story. "Beck has become more active, more inquisitive, shows more and more interest in sports, and would like to start training in one of these sports: wheelchair tennis, badminton, and arm wrestling. All of this happened after he participated in Perspektiva’s para sports workshops," says Beck’s PE teacher, Maxim. Toktobek (Beck) is 13 years old and is in 5th grade and has no use of one arm due to his disability (left-side hemiparesis) and this makes it challenging for him to perform some everyday activities like getting dressed and playing sports or exercising. Beck is not fully independent, but sports have helped him become more independent. Physical education (PE) classes were too difficult, and that was depressing for him, so he lost interest in participating in classes and playing sports altogether. Everything changed after he went to Perspektiva’s workshops. He suddenly became very interested in sports and wanted to participate in classes and try everything, and he quickly became very involved in all PE and sports classes. Beck remarked: "At Perspektiva’s workshops, I learned to play bocce and rugby and now I play tennis”. In PE classes, Beck does all the exercises. "He used to have difficulties because he was struggling to do exercises with his left hand. Now, he’s learned to perform the exercises differently,” commented Maxim, his PE teacher. Maxim uses adaptive physical education methods in his classes with Beck and other children with disabilities. Instruction takes place in the form of a game, which helps children to perceive information more easily. The teacher also talks about and demonstrates each of the exercises, and the children repeat what they have seen. Sports and Perspektiva's workshops have given Beck new aspirations and goals: "In PE classes, I play soccer, basketball, and table tennis," says Beck. Now Beck dreams of going to the World Cup because he loves soccer. In addition, he likes playing checkers. "He also likes to throw the ball into the basketball hoop, which has improved his accuracy," says the PE teacher. Beck participated in almost all of Perspektiva’s workshops: wheelchair rugby, wheelchair curling, para powerlifting, wheelchair tennis, and badminton. "He learned more about these sports, and how to play them, and met para-athletes Yuri Kamenets, a wheelchair rugby player, Tatiana Rudyak, a para powerlifter, and Kirill Kassandrov, an amateur badminton player,” the teacher added. In addition to sports, Beck likes to study history and attend bocce classes. We hope that his dream of going to the World Cup comes true. And we believe that physical activity can change one’s life for the best, so Perspektiva works hard to make it available to everyone.
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