Fit CatZ Beond the pool 2025

The podcast "Beyond the Pool" discusses the Fit Cats program, an aquatic and motor skills therapy initiative for children with disabilities. Clinicians share their experiences working with kids like Jameson, Sarah Francis, and Addison, focusing on individualized support and setting goals for improvement in areas like swimming, balance, and social interaction. Positive reinforcement is key in helping children progress, and the importance of language in shaping perceptions of disability is highlighted. The clinicians express pride in the children's achievements and emphasize the value of creating case studies to guide future clinicians. Slap it, clap it, wow, Fit Cats is fun! Fit Cats, let's talk about it. Welcome to our podcast, Beyond the Pool. A podcast created for the Fit Cats community by the Fit Cats community, including clinicians, parents, Fit Cats participants, and any prospective Fit Cats families. With our podcast, Beyond the Pool, we hope to connect language, movement, and real Fit Cats case experiences to create a very rounded experience of what Fit Cats is and why it's important. Speaking on the podcast today, we're your clinicians and your hosts, and we're going to talk a little bit about the kids we've been working with this semester. My name's Elliot, and this semester I've been working with Jameson, who is an 11-year-old with autism. My name's Sophia, I'm working with Sarah Francis, who is a 13-year-old with autism, apraxia, and global beliefs. My name is Annaly, and I worked with Addison, who is 4 years old and has Down syndrome. And my name is Gianna, and I worked with Andrew, who is 11 years old, and he has autism and ADHD. Fit Cats? Kid Cats? Lip Loss? Wait, that's a trick question. Fit Cats? Kid Cats? Fit Cats? Let's Chit Chat. Well, Sophia, it's called Fit Cats, and it is an aquatic and motor skills therapy program run through the College of Charleston. It's a program that helps kids with motor skills and confidence while playing in the pool and the gym. It's an environment where everyone works as a team, and it's such a special experience for us. And that's really what Fit Cats is. It's just fun for us and the kids as well. I mean, we make the lesson plans every week, but it really is built on the foundation that everybody is in a happy, safe, and inclusive environment where we all have fun. The lessons that we make are just like games we would play on the playground or at home, and I feel like this is a super fun environment where everybody can be themselves and learn and grow, and it's just so special to us. And just like the kids that we introduced to you, every single child has individualized support through one or two clinicians. Us as clinicians, we've gotten to observe, assess, and just hang out with our kids once a week for the past six weeks. We've gotten to document their progress and watch new goals be achieved each week. So behind the scenes of Fit Cats, we're actually working on it three times a week. Three times a week? Wait, it's four. No. It's five. It's five. We are working on Fit Cats five times a week. Five times a week. Five times a week because this class is connected to our English class and our first-year synthesis seminar. And then we have our hands-on period when we're actually in class. Yes, exactly. So all three courses focus on perception. And our English class looks at how language shapes how we view disability. And Fit Cats then shows us how those perceptions impact real children in real spaces. And on that note, Gianna, why don't you tell us a little bit about what we've been learning in English? Of course. I think language is the foundation of this class. What we learned is if we talk about disability like it's a problem or something's wrong with disabilities, then people start to believe that. So basically, the main idea is this. The way we talk about disabilities directly affects how society treats disabled people. Our words can create understanding or they can create harm. And that's why our language really does matter. I also think language is something that a lot of the times can be limiting. Yes. Yes, of course. I think that when we use respectful language, like saying a person with a disability, it shows that they're a person first and they're not a label. You know what I mean? Yes. Yes, and like in my case, when I was doing my parent interview, I talked to Sarah Francis's mom about this and kind of asked her that question about what Sarah Francis wants to be referred to and like how she wants to be referred to when you're talking about autism. And Mrs. White said like she doesn't even really use the word autism when referring to Sarah Francis just because it's a label. And like she prioritizes like what she can do to make her feel good, to make her enjoy life and to make her feel like she's accomplishing things and she's not really worried about the diagnosis. So I think it's like whatever you prefer as long as you ask and open communication, I feel like that's how you kind of make language less limiting and more open. Yes, I agree. And it really is individual. Like it's to each their own. Yes. Okay, and on that note, speaking about like the language that we use, we really got to put that to use whenever we were with our FITCAST family at the pool and at the gym. We spent around 30 minutes each day in the pool with the kids or 30 minutes each Wednesday at the pool with the kids and about an hour in the gym space. And during this time, there were around like 30 people in the pool and probably like 30 people in the gym. At the beginning of the program, we made goals for the kids that we got to work on both in the water and when playing in the gym space. There was like different goals that were set for each kid. So, I mean, each person really like had an independent experience with their kid and set some goals that were kind of major. If like we thought that we could really see the kid like excel throughout the session, we might set a new goal for next time. And so there were like different goals, like body awareness goals, spatial awareness goals, locomotor skills, and just like social interaction. Yes, and we really like took the kids where they were. So, for example, one of my goals in the gym, Sarah Francis really enjoys throwing and catching and playing catch. So we worked on underhand throwing because she's already developed in her overhand throwing. And then for the pool. Andrew in the pool, he was a very good swimmer, and I once challenged him. So I would time him each week swimming in the pool. And in the beginning of the semester when we first started, he took 45 seconds to swim a lap there and back. And towards the end of the semester, it took him 30 seconds. Yay. I had a similar situation with my kid, Jameson, because he loves the pool and he's super comfortable in the water. And so a lot of our time was building like fundamental aquatic skills, but also just letting him be a kid and letting him have fun. So floating was a big goal for the entire semester, as well as just like building more like comfortability in the water. But floating was consistent throughout our entire time. Yeah, and at the very beginning, we all kind of got some information from the parents. We had like interviews with the parents and talked about what like the kids needed to work on or something that the parents wanted to see the kids achieve throughout the session. And one of the things with Addison, her parents mentioned that she didn't really like water kind of to be near her face. She wasn't really like confident with like water being splashed on her. By the end of the class, I had her like sitting on the side of the pool and like kind of jumping in to the point where her face would go mostly underwater. So that was really cool to see. Yeah, that's cool. It was also really cool to see like through like positive reinforcement. I don't know about you guys, but like whenever I worked with Addison, she did a lot better like if I gave her high fives a lot or was like, good job, like you're doing awesome, like stuff like that, and just like really reinforcing the behavior. Like it really helped her to like want to do better and like exceed. And so that was really cool to see and to like be a part of. So that's kind of like positive reinforcement was a really, really, really big thing in me and Sarah Francis's like training and stuff because we had the parents write us little blurbs about their child, what they like, what they dislike and stuff. And positive reinforcement was emphasized and emphasized and emphasized. That was a core part of what we did every day. And so my child, Sarah Francis, has been in this program for many years now. And just hearing about her progress and watching it myself has just made me so proud of her. Her biggest strength is definitely her personality. She's bright, she's smiling, and she's definitely a day maker. Every day at the camps is different, but our main goal was out of the water, we're moving balance and crossing midline and underhand throwing. And our goals in the water were flutter kicking and treading water. And those elements will definitely be added to the case studies that we're making about our children for this semester and then so future clinicians can use it in the years to come. Yeah, I agree. Like some of my main goals too in the water, one of them was like blowing bubbles and stuff like that. And then like in the gym, like stepping up like higher steps, like such as the curbs and stuff like on her own, like taking big steps like that. And just like seeing all the progress, it makes like putting a case study, like putting that together kind of easy whenever you like see all the progress that she's made like right in front of you and you can like take notes about it each day. And it definitely feels like so accomplished or like so rewarding and such a big accomplishment when you can see that progress on paper. Just because Sarah Francis has been in the program for so long, you can see her progress year after year after year. It's just like such an honor to be a part of that and like make a case study that future clinicians can see and go off of and like she can get better every day. Yeah. It's also just interesting to see because Jameson, like Sarah Francis, has been in the program for a really long time. And so by reading the case studies that past clinicians have done, I got a better grasp on like what works for Jameson, what doesn't work for Jameson, and then also just being around the clinicians that had him in the past. Like he is so adored in the program. And like every day, like people would come up and give me tips and also just like say hi to Jameson and help me out with his goals. Yeah, and I mean I didn't really come into this class with any like experience or expectations, and I feel like the case studies helped with that. Yeah. I don't think I had any of them. Did you guys? Yeah. Well, I don't know. Addison didn't. This was her first year in the program. So like she came in with no case studies, and I like didn't really know what to expect. And I was like kind of nervous like the first day because I was like I have no like don't have that much information about her. Like I don't know how difficult this is going to be. But it actually turned out that she was really easygoing, and she was really like cooperative and like wanted to be there. So that was really fun and like exciting. Okay. And then before I went into the FCATS program and I kind of just got like the basic information about Sarah Francis, I do a lot of research just because I don't really have a lot of experience in this field about like autism, Down syndrome, apraxia, global delays, like stuff that was very relevant and that we would come across every single day. And I feel like there's a lot of assumptions about it. I'm going to name autism just as an example. A lot of theories have to go along with autism, like what like children with autism like, dislike, and some are true. But an example that I kind of learned from Sarah Francis is that everybody is different and everybody has different things that they like. For example, a lot of like a common assumption about people with autism is that they get like really hyper fixated on one thing, one subject, and that is only one specific type of autism. Like Sarah Francis does not relate to that at all, and I kind of just find that interesting that like she likes to go from thing to thing and like she loves to be with people. Like that is her favorite thing ever. Social interaction really motivates her. And then, I don't know, for other kids it could be really different. So it's all an individualized experience in just how she goes about life. It's just very amazing and interesting, and she's just like Sarah Francis. Yeah, like Andrew, he loved being around people, and he loved swimming with people. He overall just liked being around other kids and other people like his age especially, which is like really nice to see. That's exactly how Sarah Francis was. So when we're in these two classes, like they happen, I mean three technically, but they're happening simultaneously and we're learning things from each of the classes and kind of like intertwining them to make it like working in a group and working in SIGCHAT is better. So, for example, I would start with like rhetoric and how I speak in an everyday setting and in a SIGCHAT setting. I mean, I do think it's changed me in how I speak as a person in everyday life. So, for example, like we talked a lot about like exigent constraints and what was it? Audience. Audience and kind of just knowing that and kind of being aware of like how you step into a classroom every single day and how you step into life every single day and like knowing your purpose, knowing your audience, and knowing like what goes on around you. It's like really important. And then in SIGCHAT, just using like the correct language and using like the person first language because it really is about the people, and I feel like through this class, we're dedicating ourselves to people. Yeah, speaking on like rhetoric too, one of like the projects that we did in our English class, we like took a weekend and like listened to like different types of language that we heard, and then we like made like word bubbles and like to see like there's a lot of language that we don't notice is bad a lot of the times or we don't notice is like ableist language and stuff like that. So, it was just kind of interesting to see like how much it actually is a part of like everyday life and we don't even notice it. Yeah, and this really gives a lot of meaning to what we all learned in English, which is that just like there's so many, and Gianna will go into a little bit more into this on media representations, but there's just so much that you see on the media and like people tell you about working with children. And in my experience with working with an autistic child, like it's just so different from what people tell you. Like people tell you it's a negative experience. Like people with autism will never do things that a lot of people who don't have autism or don't have like a disability can. And that's something I really learned was not true at all. Like Jameson is a wonderful kid who I'm positive will live a wonderful life and do things that to the fullest that he wants to do. And so, FitCast gave meaning to what I learned in English because I was just living exactly what we were learning. Yeah, and it was like a lot, we learned a lot about like how people are perceived, like how different disabilities are perceived, and a lot about just like stereotypes. And like Elliot said, like a lot of people like think certain things about disabilities. And sometimes, like in certain cases, we have learned that like that sometimes is true, like just like depending on different levels and different disabilities. But it can't all be like just, it can't all be grouped into like one stereotype. And to go back what Elliot was saying for media representations, the media really does show false information about autism itself and like perceptions of like kids that have autism. And it's really like upsetting to see because you don't really understand what it's like until you're actually like, you know, like with kids. Also, like with like movies for kids, like I feel like just as an example, like the movie like Wonder is like kind of focused on like a kid with a disability. And like it can be perceived in a bunch of different ways. And like for other kids watching it, it could be, it kind of, I mean, it depends on like how you perceive that or the movie. But there's like other stuff like that to be perceived wrong in like media that's out there that even if they weren't intending for it to be like in a bad way or like to like show a disability in a bad way, it could be like harmful. It could be harmful by the wrong people. Yeah. I mean, more like representation I feel like would benefit everybody in this whole entire world because, I mean, we're the fit cats. Like class is just a small group of people who I would say like these lives have been changed by this class. And so I feel like putting out more representation in the media and movies and stuff could really benefit that group of people and the rest of the world so we can all like have an understanding of each other. And you really don't, I mean, you really want to see yourself like on that screen, like see yourself represented. That makes you feel like included in the world. And I don't know. I feel like we could benefit from more representation. Yeah. I think there are both like positives and negatives about media representation, definitely. I agree. Yeah. And one thing I learned was like one of the things we studied was the R of K speech which was talking about Tylenol and autism. And one of the things he said was that people with autism like they'll never live a normal life and they'll never like go on dates. They'll never use the bathroom on their own. And like I didn't initially believe that when I listened to it the first time, but especially after working with Jameson and just seeing like how he functions and then hearing how his mom like perceives how he functions, it's just a lot of what he says is so like easily believed but also it's so very wrong. And I think that's really important to recognize when you're listening to things. Yeah. And it's like honestly this whole process, like they like improved so much and it's like so nice to see like throughout the weeks of being with them at SIGCHAT, they improved so fast and it's like a really special experience. Yeah. And on that note, like I do agree this class was such like an eye-opening experience and it's such a unique experience too because like for us as like 18-year-olds to be able to have this opportunity to be so like involved in a program like this, like not everybody gets this opportunity. And it's like you learn so much from it that you can use in the outside world, like you can use every day. I learned about like the language I use and just like stuff like that, that will forever like leave an impact on me. Yeah. I would say SIGCHATs will give you the good days and the bad days and it will make you a better person and it will make you excited to like show up every day and commit yourself to something. And it was just really special and I recommend this class to everyone. And that's a big reason why we wanted to do a podcast instead of just like a slideshow or something was just so everyone knows exactly like as clinicians what our experience was and like what we hope that the children take away and what clinicians take away and what everyone in the program takes away. And we hope that everyone gains like a learning of SIGCHATs from this podcast. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I think a podcast was just like a really good way to go about it because we can really like hear like the tone in the conversation and it's like a really good time for like storytelling. Like we've heard like good stories from all of the kids. We've got to hear about a lot of the opportunities that may not have been conveyed as well through like a slideshow or something like that. And I want to give a big thanks to Dr. Rogers and Ms. Flynn for this whole experience. And Devin. And Devin. This whole experience was very like eye-opening and it really truly was. And also a big thank you to the parents of the SIGCHATs program. It really truly was. And also a big thank you to the parents of the SIGCHATs program and the other clinicians. And the future clinicians who are going to join SIGCHATs after listening to this podcast. And everyone who's helped out with SIGCHATs. We really appreciate it. Okay, one last time. Slap it. Clap it. Wow, SIGCHATs was fun.