Special Olympic’s Young Athletes Program comes to Cornerstone School
CranstonArc’s Cornerstone School implements the Young Athletes Program for children 3 to 7.
Awards Ceremony held on Thursday, February 26, 2009 from 10:00 to 11:00 AM. 
CRANSTON, RI - April 6, 2009 – CranstonArc’s Cornerstone School has implemented the Young Athletes Program, a Special Olympics Program geared toward young children.
On Thursday, February 26, 2009 from 10:00 - 11:00 AM
an Awards Ceremony was held in the School’s Gym at 665 Dyer Ave., Cranston, RI to celebrate the children’s accomplishments.
The Young Athletes Program is a relatively new program designed to introduce developmentally appropriate gross motor skills to children ages 3 - 7, who are too young to participate in traditional Special Olympics competition. http://www.specialolympics.org/young_athletes.aspx
Under the direction of Ms. Stacey Lehrer, M.Ed., OTR/L, ATP, the Program began in early January with 35 children participating. All of the school’s 3-7 year old students, both typically developing and special needs are participating in the Young Athletes Program. “The Program comes with an activity guide designed for the program” says Stacy, “but I have adapted and varied the activities so that all of our students can participate and benefit.” Through various fun activities, the children work on developing skills in areas such as throwing, catching, kicking, striking, and balance.
The program will run every Thursday, with two groups meeting for 8 weeks. The focus each week is on a different skill set. Week one addressed the foundational skills for sports. During this session the children worked on learning concepts like up/down, fast/slow, forwards/backwards, and body parts through songs, parachute play, games with scarves and ribbons, Simon Says, etc.
For more information on the Young Athletes Program at Cornerstone School contact Stacey at (401) 942-2388