1 Mar 2025
The ABCs of Motivation: How to Inspire Your Child with Special Needs to Exercise
Exercise is a crucial life skill that can benefit our children (and ourselves) with physical development, cognitive functions, anxiety reduction, mobility, and more. Learn how to motivate your child to move.
Exercise might be one of the most essential life skills we can teach our children, especially those with special needs.
As parents of a child with special needs, we are often busy with appointments, medications, therapy, school meetings, behavior challenges, and more.
Exercise or even general physical movement is easily overlooked.
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Don’t worry if you don’t feel like reading; you can enjoy the podcast by listening below on YouTube.
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The benefits of exercise are well-known in the typically developed community.
These benefits include muscle development, mobility, weight management, sleep, cardiovascular health, anxiety reduction, self-esteem, brain functions, disease reduction, and more.
However, it’s often difficult for us to find the time to exercise, much less force our children to do it.
With the ABCs of Motivation, you will learn how to motivate your child with special needs to exercise.
By building a positive relationship with movement, your child can build self-esteem and experience many physical and mental benefits.
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Keegan Johnson and his son, Dante, are co-founders of Let’s Go Fitness, an online fitness and career community for people with special needs.
Dante has Prader-Willi Syndrome (https://www.parentingspecialneeds.org/article/prader-willi-syndrome/), a rare genetic disorder that affects numerous body systems.
Children diagnosed with this disorder suffer from growth delays, low muscle tone, insatiable appetite (leading to obesity), delayed developmental milestones, cognitive challenges, and increased anxiety. Keegan shares his journey with Dante and us.
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The Birth Of Movement: From Hobby To Passion
Let’s Go Fitness was born during the pandemic when everyone was stuck at home.
Whether you want to call it the birth of movement or the birth of “A” movement, Dante’s discovery of his life’s passion began with an uncle’s visit to borrow some workout weights.
Dante was there when his uncle came by, and we told him about the workouts.
We asked if he wanted to try a bicep curl, and he did it. Our cheering excited him, and he thought it was “kind of cool” to do, so he decided to work out online with his cousin.
The days passed, and the workouts continued to the point where he was waking us up in the morning wanting to exercise. We had to tell him we still needed more sleep.
Sharing With A Community
We’ve been part of the Prader-Willi Syndrome community for some time and shared the story of Dante’s workouts.
Other parents messaged us and asked if their children could work out with him.
Before we knew it, 100 days in a row of workouts passed. We told him to take a break, but being in high school, and having that structure and support around him, got him thinking about what would come after graduation.
The Covid pandemic also had an effect, especially trying to figure out what would come next.
You want your child to be able to get a job and find something meaningful to do with their life.
My wife and I were concerned about the future, and Dante kept asking what he would do next.
