How to become Adapted Physical Education Specialist in 2024

Adapted Physical Education Specialist Provide individualized physical education instruction or services to children, youth, or adults with exceptional physical needs due to gross motor developmental delays or other impairments.

Adapted Physical Education Specialist is Also Know as

In different settings, Adapted Physical Education Specialist is titled as

  • Adapted Physical Activity Specialist
  • Adapted Physical Education Specialist (APE Specialist)
  • Adapted Physical Education Teacher (Adapted PE Teacher)
  • Adapted Physical Educator
  • Certified Adapted Physical Educator
  • DAPE Specialist (Developmental Adapted Physical Education Specialist)
  • DAPE Teacher (Developmental Adapted Physical Education Teacher)

Education and Training of Adapted Physical Education Specialist

Adapted Physical Education Specialist is categorized in Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Adapted Physical Education Specialist

Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.

Education Required for Adapted Physical Education Specialist

Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

Degrees Related to Adapted Physical Education Specialist

Training Required for Adapted Physical Education Specialist

Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Adapted Physical Education Specialist in different industries are

What Do Adapted Physical Education Specialist do?

  • Review adapted physical education programs or practices to ensure compliance with government or other regulations.
  • Request or order physical education equipment, following standard procedures.
  • Write reports to summarize student performance, social growth, or physical development.
  • Attend in-service training, workshops, or meetings to keep abreast of current practices or trends in adapted physical education.
  • Write or modify individualized education plans (IEPs) for students with intellectual or physical disabilities.
  • Provide students positive feedback to encourage them and help them develop an appreciation for physical education.
  • Provide individual or small groups of students with adapted physical education instruction that meets desired physical needs or goals.
  • Prepare lesson plans in accordance with individualized education plans (IEPs) and the functional abilities or needs of students.
  • Maintain thorough student records to document attendance, participation, or progress, ensuring confidentiality of all records.
  • Maintain inventory of instructional equipment, materials, or aids.
  • Evaluate the motor needs of individual students to determine their need for adapted physical education services.
  • Establish and maintain standards of behavior to create safe, orderly, and effective environments for learning.
  • Communicate behavioral observations and student progress reports to students, parents, teachers, or administrators.
  • Assist in screening or placement of students in adapted physical education programs.
  • Assess students' physical progress or needs.
  • Advise education professionals of students' physical abilities or disabilities and the accommodations required to enhance their school performance.
  • Adapt instructional techniques to the age and skill levels of students.
  • Provide adapted physical education services to students with intellectual disabilities, autism, traumatic brain injury, orthopedic impairments, or other disabling condition.
  • Instruct students, using adapted physical education techniques, to improve physical fitness, gross motor skills, perceptual motor skills, or sports and game achievement.
  • Collaborate with other educational personnel to provide inclusive activities or programs for children with disabilities.

Qualities of Good Adapted Physical Education Specialist

  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.

Tools Used by Adapted Physical Education Specialist

  • Archery targets
  • Badminton sets
  • Balance beams
  • Balance boards
  • Basketball hoops
  • Basketballs
  • Beeper balls
  • Bowling sets
  • Compact disk CD players
  • Computer laser printers
  • Croquet sets
  • Dart board equipment
  • Desktop computers
  • Digital video disk DVD players
  • Dumbbells
  • Electric wheelchairs
  • Emergency first aid kits
  • Exercise bands
  • Footballs
  • Golf clubs
  • Hockey sticks
  • Hula hoops
  • Jump ropes
  • Kickboards
  • Laptop computers
  • Lower body weight machines
  • Medicine balls
  • Parachutes
  • Personal computers
  • Personal flotation devices
  • Shuffleboard sets
  • Soccer balls
  • Soccer goals
  • Softball bats
  • Swim flippers
  • T-ball equipment
  • Tennis rackets
  • Upper body ergometers
  • Upper body weight machines
  • Volleyballs

Technology Skills required for Adapted Physical Education Specialist

  • Database software
  • Email software
  • Facebook
  • Individualized Educational Program IEP software
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Word
  • Student record software
  • Web browser software