Managing fatigue/pacing
Children and young people with Physical Difficulties (PD) will often find managing ordinary activities (like eating / drinking / communicating / concentrating / sitting up / standing / mobilising) more tiring than others and as a result are more likely to experience fatigue. This in turn can lead to missed opportunities for learning, socialising and feeling part of the school community.
To avoid a ‘Boom and Bust’ scenario where a child or young person puts everything into activities and then ‘crashes’ needing to rest / sleep / be out of school, it is recommended to regulate their energy output in order to maintain their ability to function. This will need planning which the Physical Difficulties team can help with.
The key is to identify which activities are the highest impact on energy levels (Red); which are OK or medium (Amber) and which are low impact (Green). It will differ between children and young people, some being exhausted by the long PE session, but others finding it harder to concentrate in a noisy classroom or dinner hall environment. Some will find chatting or working on something together with their friends is a low energy activity while others find reading a book quietly in the book corner allows them to zone everyone else out and recharge.
Top tips
- Work with the child or young person and make a list of their Red, Amber and Green impact activities. It doesn’t have to be about physical activity, it may be a certain subject e.g. Maths because they find it really hard. Use their pupil voice to consider the barriers that drain energy.
- Work together with the family to get ideas about impact and activities from them.
- Make sure there is a mix of the different energy activities during a child or young person’s day / week.
- Monitor fatigue levels, if the child or young person continues to ‘Bust’, work out what the ‘Boom’ is for them and adjust accordingly. It may be eating in a quiet area etc.
- Regularly review the list to see if the Red, Amber and Green activity levels remain the same or have changed. Note patterns and triggers and adjust the timetable.
- Remember, it is better for children and young people to be in school all of the time engaging in achievable low impact activity levels, than risk them being overwhelmed leading to fatigue.