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The game plan

Staff photo by JIM REED

Andrew Davis, age 12, right, and Michael Smith, age 14, get their exercise on a bicycle machine as they compete in a ATV racing video game.

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BY YVETTE C. HAMMETT

yhammett@tampatrib.com

Published: September 16, 2009

BLOOMINGDALE - A group of middle schoolers enthusiastically leaves the confines of their academic classroom, bouncing into a high-tech gymnasium of sorts, where they not only use their muscles, but their minds.

Interactive Education Academy, a school for special-needs students near Bloomingdale High, has introduced a new fitness program that also incorporates motor skills, coordination and classroom work.

And it's going over big.

"The kids think they're just having fun," said Ricardo Rodriguez of Brandon, whose 17-year-old son attends the school run by instructors who specialize in dyslexia and other learning disabilities.

"The school has been phenomenal," said Rodriguez, noting that his son was not getting the kind of one-on-one education in public high school required for a developmentally delayed student.

Using a McKay Scholarship for Students with Disabilities, Rodriguez and the parents of 51 others are able to move their students into a school designed specifically to teach students who need some extra attention.

About 80 percent of the students are there on McKay scholarships, provided to 19,850 Florida students with special needs in 2007-08 who needed to participate in a special education program.

Bill Beers, who started the Dyslexia Institute of America in 2001, opened the school in 2004, with a focus on helping students achieve academic requirements and prepare them for steps they can take after graduation to be successful in life, he said.

Smaller classrooms with more focused attention can make all the difference, he said. For some of the students, struggling through public school would be too much. They'd quit before they finished.

"When the environment is smaller and less complex, they tend to be more grounded," said Faith Cappenberg, a consultant to the school for special education and autism.

"For kids with multiple learning disabilities, the onus is still on the family to make sure they are sufficiently assessed and observed," she said. In the setting at Interactive Education Academy, they get that, she said.

Instructor Allison Kaczmarek teaches language arts and doubles as the physical education instructor in the new interactive gym that offers PE in the form of video games. The kids may think they're just playing, but at the same time they're building muscles, they're learning anatomy, building hand-eye coordination and gaining reading and writing skills, she said.

"It teaches them how to take chances, to try different things outside their comfort zone," Kaczmarek said.

Rodriguez said he's seen a difference in his son's motor skills.

And overall, the school has had a very positive impact on his son, who was born three months premature.

"They just have a fantastic program," Rodriguez said. "My son gets more one-on-one. He may not become a rocket scientist, but he likes computers and technical programs and with the right transitional program and training, he can live a normal, successful life. That's what I want."

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 627-4763.

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