STEPS teacher Joey Filipic coaches a student through some batting practice during the APEX wrap-up event at Westview Freedom Academy (KYLE ARCHIBALD/University of Windsor)
By Kate Hargreaves
With baseballs and frisbees flying, music pumping and students dancing, the Adapted Physical Exercise (APEX) program wrapped up for the summer at Windsor’s Westview Freedom Academy.
APEX — started 15 years ago in the University of Windsor’s Faculty of Human Kinetics — provides exercise programming for community members with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD).
In the past two years, the program has expanded to local high schools in both the Greater Essex County District School Board (GECDSB) and Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board, with student peer leaders pairing up to exercise with students with IDD.
The success of the program in three initial GECDSB schools led to an expansion into Westview, Vincent Massey Secondary School and Sandwich Secondary School this spring.
“We are excited to be partnering with the GECDSB for the second year,” says professor Adriana Duquette, acting associate dean of research and graduate studies in the Faculty of HK and lead coordinator of APEX in community schools.
As part of APEX, students with IDD enrolled in Skills to Enhance Personal Success (STEPS) get together two days a week to exercise with students from a Grade 12 leadership course at their school.
Atike Hammud is a leadership student at Westview and says she has gained valuable leadership, communication and time-management skills all while having fun at APEX.
“You get to experience how to work with people who are different from you and have fun with them,” she says.
“At the end of each session, we put on the Macarena or some other song and all of us dance to it together.”
Aiman Syed is also a Grade 12 leadership student. She says that in addition to having a chance to get moving as part of APEX, leadership and STEPS students have a chance to make friends with peers they may not have known before.
Skylar Kaake, a Grade 9 student in the STEPS program, says he has enjoyed his time in APEX.
“I like when we go to the fitness room and we work out our muscles,” he says.
A highlight for Kaake was learning how to plank.
“We learned how to sweat, a lot,” he says. “And I made a lot of friends.”
Grade 12 STEPS student Aaliyah Kersey has also made new friends through the APEX program and says her favourite part has been playing baseball and doing fitness activities like stretching.
This enthusiasm for APEX is something both STEPS and leadership teachers at Westview have noticed in their students.
“Every day we work together, the STEPS students are so excited and always ask us if we are going with the leadership class today,” says STEPS teacher Joey Filipic.
“And the leadership students are learning about organization and communication, and they’re making friends.”
Leadership teacher Valerie Coletti has also seen major growth in the students over the course of the program.
“From the beginning, the students were apprehensive and weren’t participating as much,” she says.
“But then they started getting more confidence. They started getting more reps when they were exercising. They started getting into the movement. From start to finish, it’s been a wonderful thing to see.”
At every step of the APEX in schools expansion, UWindsor Faculty of HK graduate students have been there to support, having initially been involved in the UWindsor-based APEX programming with adult community members.
Master's student in kinesiology Katie Morrison brings her background in social work and passion for exercise to the program.
“I always knew I wanted to combine social work with fitness, and I feel like the APEX program very much does that,” she says.
“I love to see the connections between the leadership and STEPS students, and I really hope we can expand this even further into other schools.”
Watching these connections grow is also a major highlight for fellow graduate student and APEX in schools co-ordinator Chloé VidAmour.
"It is always a privilege to be able to see the program unfold within each school and witness the relationships form between the leadership and STEPS students,” she says.
“A leadership student at Westview told me that they've felt like they have ‘gained brothers and sisters’ through APEX-STEPS. These relationships go beyond the program, as students consistently voice their love for the friends they've made along the way.”
While participants, teachers and staff all praise APEX for its promotion of student confidence, connection and healthy movement, this year the program’s impact will be formally evaluated as part of a study supported through a WE-SPARK Health Institute Idea grant.
UWindsor researchers will interview teachers, leadership students and STEPS students to build understanding of their experiences as well as inform program development.
Importantly, the study centres the lived experiences of students with IDD alongside volunteers and educators.
With the study, researchers hope to develop a scalable framework that can be used across school boards to promote accessible physical activity and peer connections.
“This work will help us enhance inclusion, engagement and meaningful physical activity in school-based settings,” says Duquette.
To learn more about APEX, visit the Faculty of Human Kinetics website.