Judo in Armonia experiments with music for their autistic judoka!

 

We’re very glad to show you all our latest great collaboration, which involves our special judokas and music. Huge thanks to Francesca Lorenzini, who’s graduating in Music-therapy at “E.F. Dall’Abaco” in Verona, for the commitment and passion she’d already shown while planning this new project with our volunteers.

We had our first judo&music session the first week of October; in this video, you can see Francesca playing the ukulele and using music as reinforcement during our adapted judo training session. She was accompanying our judokas during some games and exercises, playing different rhythm and tunes, in the strong belief that music can help our athletes to improve.

Pre-existing studies show that music is proven to be a valuable tool for ASD people, as they seem to show a greater understanding of music than verbal language. Furthermore, according to studies related to the specific use of the rhythmic element of music, music allows lowering the level of perceived fatigue, improving the quality of the movement, containing altered emotional states and increasing attention spans.

Enjoy here in this video our first steps in this very exciting journey!
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Jelle’s Triumph

This is a video of Jelle. Jelle is diagnosed, as you will see, with multiple disabilities, one of which is ASD. In general, Daniel is not very active during the Judo lessons and we usually have a 1-on-1 session where we try to activate him by tickling, prodding, challenging him to do things he would not do on his own.
This evening was however special. Please look at the video to see what happened.

(Published with kind permission of the Schonewille family)

Progress meeting with the AutJudo team


The International AutJudo team organised another meeting today using Google Meet. Progress was discussed among the various countries, and of course the COVID-19 situation and the problems it presents for the project.
From the top down: Tycho van der Werff (SNJF), Luigina Desopo (Judo In Armonia), Mario Bontognali and Cecilia Evenblij (SJV), Tomas Rundqvist (Svensk Judo), Eva Cañas Rovirosa (Blanquerna University), José Morales Aznar and Cristina Curto Luque OLY (Blanquerna University), Amanuela Pierantozzi OLY (University of Genoa), James Mulroy (Judo Assist Ireland), Henk de Vries (SNJF)
Not in view (because Google only shows 9 people) Chiara Adami (Judo in Armonia), Dick Dahlstrom Rösselharth (Svensk Judo)

The progress report of Judo in Armonia (Verona, IT)

Here in Verona too, we’re ready to start our judo lessons again after the summer holidays!
In these past months, our volunteers and coaches spent a lot of time gathering information related to rules and procedures to be applied. They’ve also contacted local authorities in order to have the places at the sports centre confirmed.

Our judo program will start next Monday, October the 5th .
Some things will be different: only judokas and teachers can be present, no parents or supervisors are allowed to be in the room; our judo classes will be shorter, so that we’ll have the time to clean and sanitize the tatami; hands and feet have to be disinfected on
entering and leaving the tatami…
But on the other hand, some other things will be just the same as they were last years: our kids’ enthusiasm is not changed, nor our coaches’ and volunteers’ commitment will be reduced.

Last week, we held a meeting with our kids’ parents, during which we discussed rules and procedures to be followed. Our judokas, and their families too, are more than thrilled to restart some judo activities with other kids, they just can’t wait.

Judo In Armonia team