Adaptive Rock Climbing: Benefits of Reaching for the Top

When it comes to thinking of fun activities for both children and adults, what considerations are necessary to get everyone engaged? Is the game fun? Challenging? Worthwhile? Competitive? Will it hold their attention long enough to get everyone involved?

 

One activity that can keep the attention of any age is indoor rock climbing. Rock climbing is a perfect activity for anyone to engage in and can be adapted and modified for someone with a disability, whether it is physical, intellectual, or even vision or hearing impaired. There are many benefits for any climber, skilled or unskilled. Three main types of benefits are apparent when considering how beneficial something is: affective, cognitive, and psychomotor. An affective benefit would be how it made the person feel while engaging in rock climbing. Some of these benefits would include a sense of accomplishment, more motivated, pride, some frustration, feeling challenged, having fun, having their social aspect enhanced, and reaching goals that he or she may have set for themselves.

Another benefit is cognitive, which is the benefits gained from using your brain and thinking. These benefits could be deciding how to get to top, deciding and contemplating the placement of each hand or foot, problem solving, setting goals for themselves, spatial awareness, and trusting another person’s tips on which step to take next. The last benefit discussed is the psychomotor benefit, which can be defined as how the body benefits from the action. Some of these benefits would be using every muscle in their body to pull themselves upward, pushing up and off with legs, pulling upward with arms, finger dexterity and grip strength, using hand-eye coordination, using and finding balance with each new move upward, using neck, trunk, and back muscles to look around, up and down at surroundings, using a bilateral movement, as well as increased blood flow and muscular endurance.

 

It is very important that people do not leave any individual out of an activity just because they need a specific adaptation. Whether it is out of fear of the unknown or not educated enough to adapt, it is never acceptable to sit someone to the side because they have a disability. Indoor or outdoor rock climbing is a great activity for anyone with a disability because there are many different ways to adapt for any type of issue that comes about. Rock climbing gives a climber an endless amount of challenges; one can call it, solving one problem after another until a destination is reached. Anyone that might deal with a special needs client or student needs to educate themselves more on what specific things are necessary to adapt. No child or adult should be left out because they cannot do something, when in actuality, they can, just an adaptation is needed.

 

As a part of researching the topic, we asked students without a disability to eliminate their sight or a limb. We all now have and owe more respect and admiration for those with a disability and climb for fun or competition. It is a tough task for anyone, but even more so for those needing an adaptation.