# 1 Living with neurodivergent athletes: family insights of young athletes

The role of family members in supporting successful athletes is well documented (Pinchbeck, 2021). However, families often feel undervalued and underappreciated in the social and educational experiences of a neurodivergent athlete, despite the important role they can play (Kimber et al., 2023). This means that when coaching or working with neurodiverse athletes there are important opportunities to open dialogue with families to help understand the needs of individual athletes. These opportunities are important to explore whether we are talking to parents and carers, wider family members, spouses, close friends, or even their own children. This week’s first activity will help you reflect on how these opportunities may be handled by a club or organisation you are familiar with.

## Activity 1 Starting the conversation: engaging with family members

Allow 10 minutes

Take some time to consider how an organisation you are familiar with engages with parents and carers of young athletes. Or if you are a parent or carer with a child who attends a sports club and has contact with coaches, think about how that club engages with you. Use the following questions as a guide:

1. Are parents and carers given the opportunity to share if their child is neurodivergent? If yes, is this done in a public way or in a personalised and supportive way?
2. How do coaches know if parents or carers feel comfortable to approach them to discuss specific needs of their child?

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### Discussion

1. It is likely your experiences in this area will be different to another coach or parent studying this course, to varying degrees. This is because there is still low awareness of neurodiversity in the sport and fitness sector, in particular at grassroots levels, with a lack of coach education cited as a key factor in this (Townsend et al., 2022). Opportunities for families to share information about a neurodivergent athlete could be developed in formal ways through registration processes, or informally at coaching sessions or competitive events.
2. Often, the only way a coach knows a family is comfortable to discuss specific needs of their child, is if and when they actually do this. Whether a family may share this information is influenced by a combination of factors, including the policies and culture of a club or organisation, to the interactions with other parents and carers on the sidelines, or the attitude and behaviours of coaches. Indeed, research has shown that in addition to athletes experiencing stigma, caregivers can endure similar experiences in being socially isolated by parents of neurotypical teammates (McMahon et al., 2020).

While this activity focused on the example of a young athlete, it is important to acknowledge how these principles also apply with adult athletes. Athlete-centred and strengths-based practice remains key, remembering to be led by their needs and wants. In these situations, wider family members may offer important insight about routines or how an athlete talks about their experiences in training or competition settings. It may be an athlete finds it hard to communicate this to their coach, so creating an opportunity for others to share information can be insightful and helpful.

The next activity helps you to understand the unique challenges an autistic adult athlete can encounter in their sporting career, the perspectives of their family, and how some of these challenges can be overcome.

## Activity 2 A family’s story: Super Sam

Allow 30 minutes

Watch the clip below to hear Tony Holness talk about his experiences as a parent of a successful triathlete, his son Sam, and answer the following questions. This is a longer clip than you are used to in this course, so feel free to take a break during it if this helps you.

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Overcoming adversity with sport
Transcript

The whole clip has been included but for this activity you should watch from 6:58 to the end.

1. What emotions does Tony describe he and his wife went through when Sam was diagnosed with autism?
2. The table below includes some of the difficulties Sam’s parents have had to overcome when supporting Sam to access sport (and his university lectures). For each one note the opportunities this provided Sam to demonstrate his unique skills and talents.

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Potential challenges | How Sam has overcome this
Travel disruption to lectures | (A text entry box would appear here, but your browser does not support it.)
Not being able to talk in early life | (A text entry box would appear here, but your browser does not support it.)
Low educational expectations | (A text entry box would appear here, but your browser does not support it.)
Struggle with team sports | (A text entry box would appear here, but your browser does not support it.)

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### Discussion

Tony highlights a range of emotions felt by Sam’s family including fear, feeling worried, and a lack of understanding over the condition. These feelings can be experienced by parents and carers long after a diagnosis is made so it is important coaches and practitioners are sensitive to this when communicating with an athlete’s family.

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Potential challenges | How Sam and his family faced this
Travel disruption to lectures | High determination to be on time, so ran
Not being able to talk in early life | Focused on being able to swim very early
Low educational expectations | Completed BTEC and degree
Struggle with team sports | Explore opportunities in individual sports

Tony describes how Sam’s personality traits linked to his autism have helped him to overcome challenges. Examples of this include his desire to not be late enabling him to overcome travel disruption, his determination helping him to navigate difficulties with physical contact, and how despite not being able to talk in early life his ability to swim at a very young age. All these examples demonstrate how neurodivergent athletes can use their strengths to achieve in sporting environments if they are given the support and opportunity to do so. This is an important and valuable tool within coaching practice.

The next section will help you explore ideas on how to support positive family experiences within practice, and also how to use these stories to stay athlete led and strengths focused.

OpenLearn - Coaching neurodivergent athletes
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