Dr. Jacob Corey, an assistant professor of Physical Therapy, discussed a new grant he’s received from the Anderson Foundation for Autism to design a community-based physical activity and wellness program for individuals with autism that uses direct input from autistic individuals and caregivers.

You can listen to the interview here.

Highlights include:

Why this program is important:
“We know it’s an area that many individuals don’t have access to inclusive physical activity opportunities, and it leads to a lot of health sequelae that impacts overall quality of life and long-term health, as well as ability to participate in other areas of day-to-day life such as vocational activities, for example, when you start to get to that transitional age and want to go into work.”

Movement and physical activity:
“Movement has cascading effects on all areas of development [mental health, well-being, social openness, communication] that you talked about, so it’s huge to be able to give individuals that opportunity to move their bodies.”

Working with A Step Up Academy:
“I’m very lucky, and one of the reasons I was very excited about the job opportunity [at Arcadia] beyond how focused Arcadia is on already being inclusive and focused on giving back to their community, there is a specific school on campus called A Step Up Academy.

A Step Up Academy is a school specifically for autistic individuals and children that need more support. They go from preschool to 12th grade, so preschool to 22 years old. They are very excited for this collaboration opportunity to create a wellness program for not only their students, but also alumni of their program and community members local to our Glenside and Philadelphia area that would benefit from a community-based physical activity program like this.”