Hayley Kavanagh on Motor Skill Development, Disability, and Inclusive Sport in Ireland
In this episode of the AdaptX Podcast, Dr. Hayley Kavanagh, Research and Development Coordinator for Special Olympics Ireland’s Young Athletes Program, joins Brendan to discuss how early movement interventions can foster lifelong inclusion, health, and confidence for children with intellectual disabilities (ID). Drawing from her doctoral research at Dublin City University, Hayley explores how fundamental movement skills (FMS), like running, catching, balancing, and throwing, serve as building blocks for participation in sports and daily life. She highlights how her work has expanded Special Olympics Ireland’s health education reach by 300%, and how her data-driven approach helps bridge the gap between research, coaching, and community programming.
Hayley shares how she developed an eight-week, coach-led intervention designed to strengthen movement proficiency among young athletes while improving coach education, parent involvement, and program accessibility. Her research reveals stark disparities, such as 0% mastery of balance skills among children with intellectual disabilities, yet also offers practical, evidence-based solutions: repetitive practice, visual support tools, structured routines, and consistent encouragement. Through collaborations with the University of Alberta’s Play Shop and Ireland’s local sports partnerships, Hayley and her team are also empowering parents to reinforce skills at home, blending family engagement with structured learning for better outcomes.
The conversation broadens to cover the global health inequities faced by individuals with ID and how programs like Healthy Athletes, Health at Play, and Stronger Minds, Happier Lives are changing that narrative. Hayley emphasizes that inclusive health and physical activity initiatives must start early, and be designed around understanding, not assumption. Whether you’re a fitness professional, researcher, or advocate, this episode offers actionable insights into how to create adaptive, evidence-based, and inclusive programs that allow every child - regardless of ability - to move, play, and thrive.
Brendan Aylward (00:01.546)
All right, welcome to the AdaptX podcast where we have conversations with individuals who are building accessible businesses, advocating for inclusion or excelling in adaptive sports. Our intention is never to speak on behalf of those with disabilities, but provide a platform to share insights into a more accessible world. Today, we are joined by Dr. Hayley Kavanagh. She is currently working in the role of research and developmental coordinator for the Young Athletes Program with Special Olympics Ireland, designing and implementing a coach-led fundamental movement skill intervention.
Brendan Aylward (00:32.02)
increasing their health education program reach by 300%. Her doctoral studies at Dublin City University focused on fundamental movement skill proficiency in children with intellectual disabilities. Haley, thank you for joining me today. I want to quickly mention for our listeners in the US, which is.
Hayley Kavanagh (00:44.401)
Thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Brendan Aylward (00:50.342)
most of our audience that Haley might refer to FMS as the fundamental movement skills. Our fitness professionals in the states might be familiar with that abbreviation as functional movement screen, but two very different assessments and objectives and throughout the episode I'll let you clarify what that consists of and how it's measured. So for me personally, I had a very formative experience with Special Olympics. It was my first introduction to disability at 15 years old and over the last, I guess, half of my life. The last 15 years has revolved around inclusion.
in sport and fitness, did you have a unique experience that initially influenced this career path?
Hayley Kavanagh (01:27.405)
Yeah, absolutely. So, um, in Ireland, we have like our final year exams in, in high school called the leaving certificate. So at that time, you know, everyone's trying to compete to get as many points as possible to get a college degree or course that you want to attend. Um, so I knew I wanted to work somewhere in like the health and kind of science space, but I wasn't a hundred percent sure what I wanted to do. Um, and I ended up, I did really well, but the course that, um,
I got given then was sports science and health at Dublin city university. And at the time I was a bit disappointed with how I performed, even though overall it would be deemed a good score. And I said, look, I'll go, I'll go in, I'll try sports science and I can do physiotherapy afterwards if I want to, or if I need to. Um, so I went in and in the first year we covered a topic called adapted physical activity. And it was the first time that I'd ever heard of that phrase. It was the first time that I'd ever.
you know, even heard of the concept of sports and physical activity for people with disabilities. And I went up to my lecturer and said, how do I get involved in this area? It just really, really intrigued me. And she said, go and volunteer with your local Special Olympics club. So having no knowledge in basketball or prior experience, I went down to my local club and I was assistant coaching and just helping out with children who were learning to play basketball for Special Olympics.
And then I was there for about a year or two and they were rolling out a new program called Young Athletes, which was for children with ID aged 4 to 12 years. So I kind of took a lead role on that program and rolling it out within the club setting. And I really, really enjoyed it. And I was volunteering then right up until COVID hit really. And then we kind of went online for a bit. So that's how my love for this area really grew. And again, during college, we...
had the opportunity to do a placement, like a six month work experience. Um, so I chose, and again, we had to interview and it was quite competitive, but I had the opportunity to work at an intellectual disability service. So in their gym and swim programs, um, and that organization was called Stewart's care. So again, it was a totally different side. This time it was adults that we were getting to work with for the first time and just seeing how much sport and physical activity meant for them. Uh, during that.
Hayley Kavanagh (03:48.365)
time period of the placement as well. There was a few people who were coming into the gym who were users of motorized wheelchairs and one guy in particular had said to me that he had an acquired intellectual disability and he remembered what it was like to play football before he then was a motorized wheelchair user. So I got my thinking cap on and I remember again, we had learned about power chair football and
I think our lecturer had told us about boxes that you could put on the front of the chair. So that's what we went out and did. And we brought plastic boxes, cable tie them to the front of the motorized wheelchairs, got really large footballs and we started Ireland's first intellectual disability power chair football team. And so that was really exciting. And we did a big fundraiser and actually raised money for proper equipment and actual guards to go on the front of the chairs, because when people were crashing into each other, the boxes were just flying and splintering everywhere.
And then from there, just before I finished my final year, I actually got a job running the sport and physical activity programmes for that organisation. Again, it was a really blessed opportunity that came about. So that's how it started really for me.
Brendan Aylward (05:00.194)
Do you remember, it's something that I've been asked before and I haven't always been able to pinpoint it or accurately describe it. Do you remember?
like what the emotions you felt were, or like what kind of initially drew you, because I started with unified basketball as well, and it was, I guess it was kind of like a youth athletes, young athletes program, because we, there wasn't that differentiation at the time, but we did have kids that were all the way down to five or six, but I just remember being drawn to the unique aspect of those relationships where the athletes we were working with really just wanted my time instead of, they didn't have these expectations for me,
Hayley Kavanagh (05:14.94)
Mm-hmm.
Hayley Kavanagh (05:35.185)
Mm-hmm.
Brendan Aylward (05:37.808)
like what college are you gonna go to, how did you perform in your varsity basketball game this weekend, like all they cared about was like me being present, and I found that very refreshing. But I was wondering if there was like a specific aspect of the experience that drew you in.
Hayley Kavanagh (05:55.013)
I think it's the people themselves. Like once you get it, like we always slag and joke at Special Olympics saying, you know, once you go to one session, you're hooked. You know, you're not getting away. You're gonna want to come back time and time again. But I think it's those people that you get to meet. And like you said, it's very much about your time and being there in the moment. And I think you giving them 10 minutes of your time means so much to them as well. And that just comes back in.
like leaps and bounds. It's such a nice feeling being there and just getting to know people. I think for the children as well, it's other things, you know, where parents might be saying, look, they're having difficulty in school, but the minute they come into the sports hall, they're running in, they're meeting friends for the first time. It's the relationships, even with each other, that are built in that environment of Special Olympics as well. So, yeah, I just love the people. I just love working with them.
Brendan Aylward (06:52.294)
The university system might be a little different in Ireland than it is in the States, but like you mentioned, an assessment that you took towards the end of high school that determined what path you were gonna go, is that a competency assessment? Like the US has SATs, or is that like a match fit type of assessment?
Hayley Kavanagh (06:58.833)
Mm-hmm.
Brendan Aylward (07:15.69)
froze for a second.
Brendan Aylward (07:24.383)
lost you for a second there.
Brendan Aylward (07:31.338)
Sorry, I lost you for a second. Can you hear me okay? No, you're good. Were you able to hear the entirety of the question?
Hayley Kavanagh (07:32.457)
Sorry, I think I'm back there now.
Hayley Kavanagh (07:38.798)
I heard up to was it maths based or competency based I think.
Brendan Aylward (07:42.486)
Yeah, yeah. Okay, perfect. Yeah. So you mentioned a assessment in high school that kind of directed you towards the sports science path. Is that similar to like the SATs in the states that's more competency based and academic based? Or is it like a match fit towards a profession that you think you would be a good fit for?
Hayley Kavanagh (08:00.681)
No, it is more competency based. So it's eight subjects, English, maths, history, science, those types of subjects. Um, and yeah, it's a point system. So it's basically how well you can perform on the day and they're delivered over a two week period. So you're just going in exam after exam, after exam. Um, and it's based off your marks performed on that single day, essentially. So very stressful at the time.
Brendan Aylward (08:25.918)
stuff yeah absolutely what were your doctoral studies like did you have a specific research goal
Hayley Kavanagh (08:34.817)
Yeah. So I suppose when I talk about stress, I still think those high school exams are probably the most stressful time. Um, even with the doctoral stuff was, uh, was quite challenging at times, but still very enjoyable. I think the reason I suppose I got interested in the area of research as well as, as part of the sports science degree, we do research and things. And again, in final year, you have to pick a topic of your choice. And at that time I'd pretty much decided I love the area of adaptive physical activity.
This is where, what I want to go into. And I have had some exposure volunteering with other PhD and doctoral researchers on their projects. And one study in particular was called moving well being well. And we were going around across the island of Ireland, assessing children's fundamental movement skills. And these are children now in mainstream primary education. So that was my first taste of, you know, fundamental movement skills and the idea of physical literacy.
So for my project, then I decided, what does that look like then for children with intellectual disabilities? Because what I'd seen and from the research, it showed that typically developing children had quite poor levels of motor skill proficiency. And I could only imagine with all the opportunities presented to them, what was it going to be like on the other hand then for children who weren't presented with as much opportunity to take part in sport and physical activity?
Um, so again, we kind of started that research or piloted it then in my final year, um, and then COVID did hit at that time as well. So it was only around November, I think 2020 then when we'd put an application in to say, okay, we actually want to do this as a doctoral research study and, and take it a bit further. And we had originally approached Special Olympics Ireland in 2019 to kind of flag the idea with them and just see what they thought and.
Um, Karen Coventry, who's the director of sport there, and she's my boss now, um, was like, she loves evidence-based research and it's something that was relatively new for the organization. They hadn't gone down that path before. So they were taking a chance and the young athletes, they see it as the, they're the future of the special Olympics program. You know, they're coming in. We want to give them the best opportunity to develop their fundamental movement skills, but yet they had no findings on how was the program.
Hayley Kavanagh (10:54.341)
going, are the children developing their skills, what is their baseline levels like? So that's really where the project kind of stemmed from.
Brendan Aylward (11:02.238)
Yeah, yeah, I think if you look solely at the literature...
and I'm sure it's accurate in many ways, individuals with disabilities, lower gross motor functioning abilities, and I wonder sometimes if that's a product of their disability or whether it's a product of a lack of opportunities to develop. Can you speak on nature versus nurture? Does it appear to be specific to a diagnosis or does it maybe stem from a lack of opportunities to good programming like young athletes?
Hayley Kavanagh (11:13.712)
Mm-hmm.
Hayley Kavanagh (11:36.161)
I think there's a bit of both, definitely. I think that in terms of say the cognitive side of things, that what the research would say is that because of say the cognitive disability, that then developmentally children with intellectual disabilities are behind, they're typically developing peers. Like they might learn to walk at a later stage and things like that, which means then their movement patterns are developing at a later rate.
Um, so, but then on the other side of things, there is definitely less opportunities for children with ID to take part in sport and physical activity. And even anecdotal evidence that we would have heard, or, you know, if a child with an intellectual disability is attending, um, a mainstream primary school, we've heard stories of them being left out of physical education class, like they're left sitting on a bench because maybe the teacher doesn't know how to adapt the activity to include them.
or there's a fear or worry maybe from parents or from teachers about what if they get injured or what if they get hurt side of things as well. So I definitely think it's a combination of both. But then again, from what we've seen when we're out in the field as well is that children who tend to take part in more than one activity, so more than one sport, they're being physically active more than one day a week.
their fundamental movement skill proficiency is definitely higher because they've had more exposure to it. I think the key about fundamental movement skills is that the more you need to be provided with opportunities to learn, reinforce and practice them. It's the same with everything, with reading, with writing, the more we do it the better we are at it. So yeah, exactly the same for fundamental movement skills.
Brendan Aylward (13:15.966)
Yeah, that learn, reinforce, practice is essential because I think sometimes there's a lot of seasonal based programs for people with disabilities, but it's like the same thing in the fitness space. But if you came to me with a specific fitness goal,
Hayley Kavanagh (13:18.885)
Hmm.
Hayley Kavanagh (13:24.409)
Yeah.
Brendan Aylward (13:32.226)
And my response was, yeah, we have our next eight week program starting next month. And then after that eight week program, the next one starting a month later, like that's not the best recipe for fitness improvement, motor skill improvement, et cetera. So it really reinforces the essential piece of year round programming, I suppose.
Hayley Kavanagh (13:36.965)
Mm-hmm.
Hayley Kavanagh (13:45.233)
Mm-hmm.
Hayley Kavanagh (13:52.685)
Yeah, and the young athletes program is a year round program, which is great. So the only time it really runs alongside the school year. So the only time periods that the children would not be taking part is over the summer months. And again, some clubs, depending on volunteer availability, they might run through or for as long as they can through the summer as well. And then at Christmas time, maybe for two weeks or in December. So it is a really good program in that respect.
is year round, however, it is just one day a week. So we are really trying to encourage athletes to take part in other things outside of the program as well. And once athletes are between the ages of six and eight, it is sport dependent. They can join other sports programs that we have on offer with Special Olympics. However, we are obviously trying to encourage, I think one thing that the coaches tell me they struggle with a bit sometimes is managing.
parents expectations because they might say, my child has been in the program a year, I want them to go to a sport. And we're trying to say, but they haven't developed, you know, all of the skills that they need to be able to play basketball or to play football or to do those things. So I think if it is the one day a week, you know, we need to be recognizing that it might take a bit longer. Whereas if they're physically active outside of the program, then those skills will develop at a faster rate.
Brendan Aylward (15:17.558)
So is this seen as a prerequisite to participation or like a supplementary option?
Hayley Kavanagh (15:23.981)
So at the moment, we probably are trying to go down the prerequisite route a bit. It was only introduced in 2016, this young athletes program for the first time, because prior to that, it would have been, I think children had to be aged eight to join the sports program. So parents were looking for their children to get into things earlier, which of course, you know, any other child might start a sport or, you know, at age four, it could be. So that's why the program then was introduced.
Yeah, look, we are trying to say that it's a prerequisite, but we don't stop anybody if they want to wait and join a sports program either.
Brendan Aylward (16:02.103)
Yeah, I just wonder if sometimes the best way...
to get better at a sport is to practice it or just to be engaged in it to a degree. So the parallel between like, you have to meet XYZ standard to participate or you start participating, you identify where the deficits are and then you try to address those deficits either within practice or within supplementary training. Yeah, it's an interesting model, but you had mentioned some of the cognitive,
Hayley Kavanagh (16:11.15)
Mm-hmm.
Brendan Aylward (16:35.876)
Deficits may be contributing to slower processing speeds and lower gross motor skills. While we push like authentic conclusions of people with and without disabilities like seamlessly coexisting or various diagnoses coexisting, could you make the case for like more specialized programs being beneficial for people with disabilities? So for example, in the States, there's like Down Syndrome Sports of America. So for athletes solely with Down Syndrome, like could you make the case for specialized?
being advantageous to kind of level the playing field.
Hayley Kavanagh (17:09.965)
I think that's an interesting question. I think, I suppose we also are looking at society and what's happening in our communities and things like that as well. So while you might say, okay, so everybody with Down syndrome, let's do this program because, you know, we can tailor it, obviously tailoring it to meet individual needs is so important, but I think that can happen at a sports session or the young athletes program anyway.
And because with the help of the coaches and volunteers, they get to know their athletes really, really well. I think that is what is more important than I suppose, grouping people into more kind of categories for sports. And I think Special Olympics in general, you know, we are segregated in that sense that it is only for people with intellectual disabilities, or I know in the United States, you have unified sports. So at the moment in Ireland, we haven't rolled out that program model as of yet.
I think in the future it's probably something that the organization might look at, but as of now we're solely a program for people with ID and I think as part of coach education and training that catering for the individual athlete and to meet their individual needs is part of what we do anyway. So everybody should be able to be included and catered for within the session.
Brendan Aylward (18:24.83)
Yeah, and I'm a big proponent of the...
the mixed ability model, not necessarily advocating for specialized, but yeah, it's just an interesting idea of what environment is someone most successful in and then what environment do they feel most included in? I think for a long time I thought that inclusion was just the presence of people with or without disabilities. But now the literature kinda trends towards inclusion as an experience or as an emotion that's kinda ever evolving
Hayley Kavanagh (18:28.357)
Mm-hmm.
Hayley Kavanagh (18:37.23)
Mm.
Hayley Kavanagh (18:46.073)
Mm-hmm.
Brendan Aylward (18:57.548)
to determine when they feel included and not myself as a gym owner or a coach to say like oh this program is inclusive it's kind of it's up to the participant I guess to a degree. What are the unique challenges of conducting research with this population?
Hayley Kavanagh (18:59.813)
Mm-hmm.
Hayley Kavanagh (19:17.038)
So, you know, one thing that I will start with is that no matter what mood I was in before going to, you know, an assessment or testing session, leaving the session, I was always happy just because the children themselves just make you really, really happy and they're just a joy to be around. But I think some of the challenges or kind of solutions as well that we would have implemented. So when I was helping with other researchers at the time in those primary school settings,
we would have groups of children and we would say, you know, number one, go do your run. Number two, go. That does not work when you're working in an adapted setting. So we would work one on one with each child and we would go through the full battery of fundamental movement skill assessments with them. As part of the assessment anyway, you would demonstrate.
This time we've actually brought in a visual support protocol. So we're using, you know, the pictorial exchange communication system, symbols and pictures to show the athletes the skill. Then we demonstrate and then we ask them to copy us and to do the skill then. So definitely working on a one-to-one basis, building that rapport, getting to know the athlete's name, a lot of motivation and encouragement is definitely needed in those settings as well. And I think that's probably
you know, some of the challenges maybe we might have faced is that not knowing the researchers, but I suppose that could happen anywhere. I think you just have to build that rapport when you go in and make it seem like fun and that it's a game and not be putting obviously any pressure or anything saying we don't mention that it's a test. We mentioned that it's a few games that we're doing. We want to see how good you are at performing the skills and then just rewarding with a sticker and things like that at the end.
I think challenging wise, because again, we're a volunteer led organization, sometimes life happens for people. And if there's one lead volunteer, then a session might be canceled. If that volunteer can't attend, which means that we'd miss out on attending the club on that week. Other things, the usual stuff like weather, or if it's an outdoor session and it starts raining really heavy and the children can't be outside. So just those type of challenges really. And I suppose.
Hayley Kavanagh (21:31.893)
Also the number, because we work on a one-to-one basis, and most sessions are only 40 minutes to an hour long, we only get through a certain number of children, we only get to assess a certain number. Whereas again, if you were going to a school, you could spend the whole day there, and probably do between 30 to 40 children, every hour, hour and a half type thing. But that is, it's just not the same when you're working with a special population. So our testing periods are...
that bit more challenging and a bit longer probably than what would typically be expected.
Brendan Aylward (22:04.15)
Are you able to articulate, I guess verbally, without visuals and stuff, the criteria of the fundamental movement screen? Like what motor skills you're looking at, what activities they're doing during that testing?
Hayley Kavanagh (22:17.886)
Mm-hmm. So we use two types of assessments. So we use the test of gross motor development three and the boss two. So in the TGMD three, that's things like running, skipping, horizontal jump. In terms of your locomotor skills, your object control would be catching, kicking, overhand throw, underhand throw, one hand strike, things like that. And then the two assessments in the bot two are balanced. So
A beam balance where you're standing on one leg with your hands on your hips and then walking heel to toe on a line with hands on your hips. So the ones that the athletes or the children would struggle with a lot is the balance assessments. And when we looked at in terms of percentage mastery, so how close are they at scoring in all of the criteria? So a one would mean that you achieve that criteria, a zero means that you didn't.
And there's between three and four criteria per skill in the test of gross motor development. Three. And then for the bot two, it's whether you can, how many steps can you do out of those six? If any, if you get all six, you don't have to do a second trial. But you're given a second trial if you don't get six. And then for the beam balance, it's a 10 seconds. Can you hold that position for 10 seconds without dropping your leg? So the balance is definitely in terms of percentage mastery.
When we assessed during the doctoral studies, 100 children with intellectual disabilities, 0% of them had mastered those skills of balance, which was particularly concerning because I know in later life for people with intellectual disabilities, the risk of falls and the prevalence of falls tends to be a lot higher. So if between the ages of 4 to 12, if your balance is already quite poor, where does that leave you as you start to get older? So...
It was definitely, that was probably the most surprising thing for me that came out of the findings.
Brendan Aylward (24:16.962)
Does there need to be a familiarization period for the participants? Like, is there some degree of understanding and practicing the tests that would just show someone or that would lead to improvement, but not necessarily insinuate that they've globally improved their ability to balance, but just that they got better at that specific test through practice?
Hayley Kavanagh (24:39.841)
Very possibly, I think in terms of the assessment batteries that we were using and the reason we selected those was because they were deemed to be the most appropriate for field use with that particular population. I know other studies like we had found afterwards that visual support protocol was used with the test of gross motor development 3 back in 2017 with children who had autism and they did show that with the visualization pictures and the cards.
that the children perform better in the assessments than without the cards, which is why we introduced them this time to help with cognitive understanding of what we are asking the children to do, because yes, 100% that probably, I'd almost say definitely comes into play, but in terms of the protocols, the way they stand at the moment, there isn't really a familiarization period. And then again, I suppose if you were to add that in, that even further elongates how much testing time or assessment time is required.
And for the project that we're doing at the moment, we're under very strict or tight timelines. So we were hoping to assess 90 children within a three week period. And the coaches would deliver an eight week intervention and then we would reassess eight weeks later in another three week round. So it's quite challenging if you were to add a familiarization period. But I would imagine or hypothesize that it would help.
Mm-hmm.
Brendan Aylward (26:07.19)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, because I just wonder if the first time they're introduced to the test and then they go through the intervention and then they do the test again, whether improvements are specifically to the intervention, could be attributed specifically to the intervention or to a degree of being more familiar with the test, being more comfortable with the test.
Hayley Kavanagh (26:24.661)
Yeah. And I think sometimes it's even a struggle to try and encourage children to come up and do the assessments with us as well, because their session continues on in the background whilst we're working one on one. And it's like, oh, my coach and my friends are having more fun than what you're doing over here with me. So, you know, we did have a few athletes saying, no, that's boring. I don't want to do it.
Brendan Aylward (26:36.59)
distracting.
Hayley Kavanagh (26:46.745)
That's them saying, no, I'm not consenting to take part. So my fear would be to ask them to do it more than once. But they would probably be like, nope, I wanna just do my session the way it is.
Brendan Aylward (26:56.462)
Thanks for watching!
Yeah, it definitely speaks to motivation, like influencing a lot of test results as well too, like how, how
Hayley Kavanagh (27:02.234)
Mm-hmm.
Brendan Aylward (27:08.018)
engaged they are, how well they're concentrating on the task versus being distracted by that external stimuli. Are you able to share kind of what the eight-week intervention plans to look like or maybe how a fitness program that works with young individuals with disabilities could adopt pieces of this intervention to work on some of these gross motor skills with their clients?
Hayley Kavanagh (27:09.229)
Yeah. Yes.
Hayley Kavanagh (27:29.741)
Yes, so when we were designing it, I suppose some key things that we had in mind was repetition. Number one is really important for this population and the structure. A lot of the coaches would say to us, you know, the athletes like to follow the same structure. They like to know what happens when they enter the session, what's happening next, and typically how most coaches would end their session is with a parachute game. So what we did was we made sure that over the eight weeks, there was only four warmups.
activities or games suggested and they were trying to incorporate, you know, a range of different fundamental movement skills, mainly locomotor and balance for their warm up. And then we would repeat the same four for the following, you know, last four weeks of the eight week program. And we also wanted to try and focus on a range of fundamental movement skills as well, because, you know, you could just focus, say, on locomotor skills and you're probably guaranteed to see an increase then over eight weeks.
But because of our findings from the PhD, where we were seeing overall low motor skill proficiency across the different skills, we wanted to try and incorporate as many as possible. So each week we would focus on two key skills. And we would do like a skill development game or activity where the coach is reinforcing some of the key coaching or teaching points. And then we would focus on a game based approach, incorporating that skill then.
kind of the structure of how it would go. We also have an obstacle course each week as well because again you can get a range of skills in there and you know bring in kind of stories as well. You know you're at the zoo or you're at the circus and you've to splash in the puddles, jump over a log, those type of things where you're really engaging the athletes and getting their imagination working as well.
Brendan Aylward (29:20.706)
From your research and your experience out in the field here, what has been the biggest surprise to you or what has been the thing that has been most unique in terms of maybe what you hypothesized when you started and then what you realized through data collection?
Hayley Kavanagh (29:38.621)
I suppose it does come back to that balance number as well. So we did compare in previous research, we compared the percentage mastery of balance for children with intellectual disabilities and typically developing children of the same age and gender. So their age and gender match. The typically developing children, it was 75 percent mastery in the balance compared to the 0 percent.
So that really, really did not only concern me, but we kind of brought it up to the coaches then in focus groups and said, you know, are you surprised? Like, what do you think of this zero percent mastery? And they said, well, you never gave us any equipment or you never thought us how to do balance activities or coach them. So I think, you know, we were saying, OK, yeah, you are right. So we needed to look then at our equipment pack and toolkit that we provide to the coaches.
So we've added now a balance beam, we've added balance rocks and as part of this new intervention we are giving coaching cues and we had videos recorded of each of the activities so the coaches could see exactly how they should be demonstrating each of those as well. So I think coach education is a really big thing because with Special Olympics a lot of the coaches may be family members or they may be parents with no sporting background and the reason...
They set up a club or the reason they show up week on week is because they want to help and provide something for their child and for other children in the community. So the education side is definitely really important and we've had a coaches training online there last week just before the intervention started this week and I was a bit nervous because the coaches are very honest which I love but they hadn't seen the session plans yet. So we talked through each of the plans over the eight weeks.
And then I said, does anybody have any feedback or questions? And one of the coaches said, yeah, I have something to say. And I was like, mm-hmm. And she goes, I love it. You listen to us in the focus groups. This is exactly what we wanted. We can't wait to try it. So that was really, really nice to hear. And it was a sigh of relief saying, OK, great. It is what they are looking for. And we've managed to put down on paper what the coaches needed. And I had an email from one of the coaches who delivered on Tuesday evening.
Brendan Aylward (31:41.39)
Thanks for watching!
Hayley Kavanagh (31:53.541)
to say it really helps the other volunteers. So it meant that not everybody in the room was relying on him because I think that's one of the things as well that I was seeing out in the field was that if there is only one lead person who knows the session plan or the activity, if they get distracted because a child is off maybe doing something that they shouldn't be, then the rest of the session tends to fall apart because other people can't step in and pick up where that person has left off. So everybody.
He said he handed the session plan out to everybody and everyone was on the same page then and most importantly the athletes enjoyed it which is what we want to be hearing.
Brendan Aylward (32:31.382)
Yeah, so the focus group of coaches who are providing feedback as to what they believe they need. You're working with a population that might not be able to always articulate, like, I'm struggling with this, or I need to work on that. Do you guys also leverage parent or caregiver surveys to understand where they perceive their children are behind in motor skill development?
Hayley Kavanagh (32:34.245)
Mm-hmm.
Hayley Kavanagh (32:42.533)
Mm-hmm.
Hayley Kavanagh (32:55.269)
So we did previously ask a question, how would you rate your child's ability compared to other children of the same age? I think a lot of people said in and around the same, but it's interesting that you mentioned parents because I've just sent out a parents questionnaire this afternoon and what we are assessing now is parents' knowledge and confidence about the topics of physical literacy and fundamental movement skills. Because again, we know parents are a big facilitator to children.
being physically active at a young age because, you know, they're the ones who are putting them in the car and driving them to the sports hall or venue. And you know, again, the research would say that more active parents raise active children. So I think education though is a big part for us. So it'll be interesting now to see how the parents knowledge and confidence about these topic areas are. And then tomorrow and Sunday, I'm actually out with two clubs.
young athletes clubs delivering parents workshops. So we collaborated with the University of Alberta who have a workshop called Play Shop and they deliver that to parents of preschool children aged three to five years. And when I came across their work, I said, this sounds like something that we really need. So we've been reaching out and linking in with them since September, since we first had the idea for the project or started applying for ethical approval
They've shared their materials with us. And again, a lot of the games that they're teaching the parents, they can be done at home with simple enough equipment, you know, using tea towels or using pillows and things like that. So we put a little parents pack together for tomorrow with beanbags and ropes. You know, I call them like snakes for balancing and walking on hula hoops, you know, for on the floor and jumping into balloons to a small ball for catching a larger one for kicking.
plastic cups to use as a target for kicking into or throwing something at. Um, so the games that the researchers from Play Shop have, I think will be really, really beneficial for the athletes that we work with. So the plan is for, for this intervention. So, um, three groups are taking part in the eight weeks of session plans. And then another two groups are doing the eight weeks of session plans, plus this parents workshop. And then we have our control group who are just doing their typical weekly session.
Hayley Kavanagh (35:21.177)
So the plan will be to see if there's any difference in motor skill proficiency, if there's improvements and which groups are improving. Is it the one who are doing the weekly with their coach plus doing twice a week with their parents, like a little game for 10 minutes twice a week? And I think that'll be really interesting to see again with our hypothesis that the more opportunities you get to learn, practice and reinforce these skills, the better you're going to become at them. So.
Yeah, that's the plan.
Brendan Aylward (35:51.001)
Yeah.
We try to tie a lot of these episodes into fitness in some ways, so maybe we can try to make this fitness specific. So if a gym was working with young individuals with disabilities, intellectual disabilities, do you have any recommendations, practical recommendations into how they could make a more robust and enjoyable program for young adults with disabilities, intellectual disabilities specifically?
Hayley Kavanagh (35:58.458)
Mm-hmm.
Hayley Kavanagh (36:21.113)
Yeah, I think asking your participants, you know, what would you like to do today? Or what do you want to focus on? Because again, people coming into a gym, you know, everybody has different goals and different interests of why they want to be there. It might be because I want to get fitter. It might be because maybe I want to lose a bit of weight or I want to run faster or, you know, different things. So I think asking your participants why they're here and what do they want to get out of their session.
what exercises do they like doing or what are some that they don't really like? And if they don't like them, why don't they like them? And again, just making sure that I suppose the people gain confidence in their ability to take part in the exercises as well, because suppose you want them to be able to, after they finish with you, maybe if they're going into another gym, that, you know, that you're confident in their ability to be able to safely carry out the exercises as well.
Brendan Aylward (37:15.018)
Yeah, and some of the pieces that you were mentioning during the research, like visual support, protocols, things like that might make a better learning experience for people with disabilities within the gym as well. So kind of just leveraging presenting materials in different ways that most people that we listen are probably familiar with, universal design.
Hayley Kavanagh (37:32.022)
Yeah, exactly.
Hayley Kavanagh (37:36.966)
Yeah, 100%. I think like a timetable as well, if it's a class and you know, first we're doing this, then we're doing this. And just to kind of provide that reassurance, because I think some people that I've worked with who have autism as well, they really like structure and they like to know what is happening next and at what time and things like that. So even having a visual schedule of the exercises or activities that you're doing could also be very helpful.
Brendan Aylward (38:03.722)
What's the landscape of inclusion? This might be too broad of a question, but landscape of inclusion in Ireland. You mentioned unified sports hasn't been adopted yet, but are students with disabilities included in classes? Are they typically taught in sub-separate environments?
Hayley Kavanagh (38:11.822)
Mm-hmm.
Hayley Kavanagh (38:20.561)
So again, it depends really on, I suppose it does look at the needs of the individual as well. So yet we do have schools where children with them without intellectual disabilities attend together and the person with the intellectual disability would have maybe a special needs assistant or a support person in the classroom with them. And then if there's other children who maybe their parents feel that type of school environment isn't where they are going to learn best.
we do have separate special educational schools. We would also have things called autism units that would be classrooms attached to your mainstream school as well. So, you know, during playtime or things like that, that the children would all be together, but if they needed that additional support, there's a space for them to go to do other learning to best suit their needs. So in terms of the primary school and secondary school education, I think overall,
It would be quite inclusive, but I think every country always has improvements that they can make to make it even more accessible.
Brendan Aylward (39:28.322)
Yeah, absolutely. If a gym.
If a gym wanted to support more individuals with disabilities, sometimes it just requires like grassroot efforts of reaching out to organizations that support those clientele and learning how you can help them. How do you think organizations can collaborate with Special Olympics to be kind of a partner in your mission? So for example, if you're saying young athletes only meets once a week, if my gym was 10 minutes away from you, would something like Special Olympics be receptive?
Hayley Kavanagh (39:34.022)
Mm-hmm.
Hayley Kavanagh (39:54.406)
Okay.
Brendan Aylward (40:01.132)
to me offering additional programs that kind of supplement what you're doing.
Hayley Kavanagh (40:06.105)
Yeah, absolutely. I think one thing that we're very lucky with in Ireland is that we have a network of local sports partnerships is what they're called. So they would be kind of government led groups that each area in the country or not each area, but a lot of the areas would have, and they would have a designated person who's called, sorry, the acronym is SIDO, they are Sports Inclusion Disability Officers.
So their whole role would be to create opportunities within the local community for people with disabilities and Special Olympics would really have strong connections and work with them because again for us it's just about people getting out there and being active and if that means you know like you said young athletes is only once a week we would be encouraging you to go to other organizations and to get active and to get out there because it'll benefit you.
across your life then and it will benefit you when you come and take part in the Special Olympics programs or sport and competition as well. But I think that local sports partnership network is a really big asset and that we do have and that we would be encouraging families, athletes, everyone to tap into because they run a lot of free programs as well which is really beneficial and it kind of removes that barrier of cost for people as well.
Brendan Aylward (41:29.346)
Can you think of any misconceptions that people have about Special Olympics?
Hayley Kavanagh (41:33.425)
One of the big ones when we speak to students is, oh yeah, the Paralympics would be the first thing that people say, or oh, it's for people who don't have limbs, or they would be kind of some of the statements that people would make. And through my work, what we've really, really tried to do, because I want to encourage as many students to get involved as possible, because I think that's how, like yourself as well, when you just get started, you get a love for it.
Brendan Aylward (41:38.03)
Yeah.
Hayley Kavanagh (42:01.749)
And so we work with the sports science students who are first years in Dublin City University and we pair them up with local Special Olympics clubs and we get them out for a six to eight week period in their own time outside of university hours to get that first taste of volunteer experience and the feedback from them is, oh, I didn't know or I didn't realize how sporty people with intellectual disabilities could be. I didn't realize how competitive.
how much fun, like crack, you know, all of that, that type of thing that people would say to us afterwards.
Brendan Aylward (42:38.462)
Yeah, the shared recreation seems to be one of the best ways to address attitudinal barriers and expectations or lower expectations that people have for...
Hayley Kavanagh (42:43.973)
Mm-hmm.
Hayley Kavanagh (42:47.629)
And because people are nervous, I think sometimes as well, you know, if you've never met someone with a disability, I think some people are worried they'll say the wrong thing or that they'll offend somebody as well. And I think, you know, what our advice would be, just be yourself, just get out there. And, you know, people are people at the end of the day. So I think that's one of the big things that we would say to the students.
Brendan Aylward (43:11.762)
Absolutely. What direction do you hope your research or your work goes in the in the coming years?
Hayley Kavanagh (43:18.753)
Have I thought about this question? I definitely think I would love to stay in my research in the area of adapted physical activity. I potentially would like to broaden it out more towards health because from my previous role as health and wellbeing coordinator, we have seen a lot of health disparities and we know that people with intellectual disabilities face a lot of health disparities compared to the general population.
And things like, you know, dying on average 16 to 20 years earlier than the general population, twice as likely to have cardiovascular disease, twice as likely to get things like arthritis. And a lot of those things, they're not because of the intellectual disability diagnosis, but because of things like lack of access to healthcare or equal access to healthcare, lack of accessible health promotion and health education opportunities.
and those type of things, healthcare professional training or lack of, because what we've seen is that, again, what we are trying to do, so not only with sports science students, but with students with healthcare backgrounds like audiology, podiatry, ophthalmology, health promotion, that we work with those students, deliver an inclusive health lecture, teach them about the health disparities that people with ID face.
and then give them an opportunity to take part in a health screening. So it's called Healthy Athletes is one of our free health screening programs that we run and get them to get hands on experience working with the population so that when they become healthcare professionals, when they finish university, that they'll be comfortable and they'll be confident to treat a patient who has an intellectual disability. So that's another big part of the work that we do. And
Again, I know you mentioned there about the health education programs that I've expanded since I was with the organization. So we introduced things like breast cancer awareness workshops. We introduced Health at Play, so that's health education for the young athletes program, so age four upwards. And again, some of the coaches were saying, what, how do you do health education with four year olds? And I said, okay, we'll show you. So a lot of things like a giant clock to talk about sleep. So what time do we go to bed at? What time do we wake up at?
Hayley Kavanagh (45:31.925)
A lot of visual props and tools for hydration. We have our giant toilet bowls with little, they call them like puddles or pools of urine, so the different colors of urine. And you say which color should it be and what color is it really though? And when we drink enough water, we know it should be very light yellow and not smelly. So these are the type of things for the Health Up Play with the younger athletes that we do because again,
getting that health knowledge from a younger age and carrying that on through as you get older, you know, we just hope to kind of intercept early and establish those lifelong health behaviors from a young age within the program. And then we've also brought in mental health was a big one as well around COVID with athletes saying to us, our adult athletes saying that they were experiencing feelings of social isolation and loneliness and they missed their friends, they missed their
Hayley Kavanagh (46:26.293)
And that again for athletes who are going the competitive route and selected for a World Games opportunity. It's a big deal and a lot of nerves and anxiety can come with that. Being away from home for the first time. Getting on a plane for the first time. Sharing a room with somebody for the first time who snores or likes the light on and you don't like the light on. So our Stronger Minds Happier Lives programme.
is a five module program that we worked with Mental Health Ireland on to design that. And that was co-produced with a team of Special Olympics athletes who are health messengers. So they've been trained as role models and advocates for their own health, but the health of all athletes or people with intellectual disabilities. So that team would speak a lot at different conferences or events and advocate on behalf of people with ID as well. So they're just some of the programs that we've...
we've created and got up and running to help try and end some of the health disparities that this group face.
Brendan Aylward (47:24.67)
Yeah, you got your hand in a lot of different projects. You had first mentioned, like, you had mentioned wanting to move from adaptive PA to health globally, and I was gonna ask how you defined health, but it seems like you encompassed it pretty well there. So not just physical health, but also emotional health, mental health, et cetera. So.
Hayley Kavanagh (47:26.669)
Yes.
Hayley Kavanagh (47:33.584)
Mm.
Hayley Kavanagh (47:40.657)
Yeah. And I think yesterday actually we were down in a county in Ireland called Limerick because we have been chosen, I say we, a team of consultants, which I'm lucky to be part of, all really brilliant researchers in the field of intellectual disability research and studies came together and put in a proposal to Special Olympics International when they put out a call to look at and assess the healthcare system.
through a systems level approach. So we were one of 10 sites selected. We're the only country in Europe to be selected for this project and this team of researchers over the next few weeks are going to deep dive into the Irish healthcare system and see is it really inclusive and accessible for people with intellectual disabilities. So I think that's a really great start on starting to look at health for this population and something that hasn't been done previously.
Brendan Aylward (48:40.734)
Yeah, that'll be really interesting to see the results of that. Is that through, what organization is that through, just if people want to kind of be attuned to the results.
Hayley Kavanagh (48:43.768)
Okay.
Hayley Kavanagh (48:48.041)
So Special Olympics International have partnered with the Missing Billion Initiative and they created a separate IDD module that is, you know, added on to the Missing Billion criteria. And that's how the, that's basically the assessment tool that we'll be using to determine whether the healthcare system is inclusive for people with ID or not. I think some of the other, there's three states in the US that are involved in the project as well. I think
Wisconsin was one of them and there's another two on the map that they've shared. I think places like India and things. So, but we're the only, Ireland was the only European country selected to be part of this project so we're very grateful for that.
Brendan Aylward (49:31.862)
Yeah, absolutely, that's awesome. If people want to learn more about the work that you're doing, we can include it in the show notes, of course, but where would you direct them to go or what resources would you share?
Hayley Kavanagh (49:45.365)
Um, so our social media is Special Olympics, Ireland, social media pages. Um, we have Instagram and Facebook and I suppose about Special Olympics in general, special Olympics.org for internationally to see where, you know, if you want to volunteer or what are the sports that we deliver and run and things like that, and to see there's over 170 countries involved.
with Special Olympics, so no matter where you are around the world, I'm sure you'd be able to find a club if you wanted to volunteer. And then my LinkedIn, I love LinkedIn. I love posting updates and things like that and sharing work and projects that's happening. So happy for people to connect with me on LinkedIn with under Haile Cáibhna.
Brendan Aylward (50:27.63)
Yeah, if you hadn't mentioned it, I was gonna say LinkedIn, because that was the first way I was introduced to your work was just...
through finding one of the research papers that you shared and you're always posting a lot of good resources and even preparing for this. I was mostly just able to read through your LinkedIn feed and learned a lot about the work that you were doing, which is rare. Not everyone shares things openly on LinkedIn for their work, but I think it's awesome. It's supposed to be a professional network. So it's the perfect place for that. So we'll include your LinkedIn page in the show notes as well.
as well as Special Olympic Ireland pages. But, Haley, it was great to learn more about what you're doing. I really both appreciate it and value it greatly. So, again, we'll share those things so people can connect with you if they're interested in learning more. Maybe if someone wants to start a young athletes program, they can learn from the model that you guys have created.
Hayley Kavanagh (51:23.473)
Mm-hmm.
Brendan Aylward (51:28.799)
And yeah, I appreciate your time and look forward to sharing this with our audience.
Hayley Kavanagh (51:33.189)
No, thank you so much. It was great being here and a privilege to come on to the AdaptX podcast.