Wednesday, April 10, 2024
APE Professional’s Journey: Words of Wisdom and Insight with Dr. Ron French
This podcast episode featured two APE professionals interviewing Dr. French, who has been a professor in APE for many years. Dr. French credits the beginning of his journey with APE to his parent’s philosophy on diversity and inclusion, which led him to UCLA where he studied what is now called adapted physical education. Dr. French has co-authored many textbooks used in the APE space on subjects like behavior management and physical education, including one that can be purchased here. Some of his mentors included his wife, Dr. Lisa Silliman-French, and his fifth grade teacher who ran a local YMCA club that included him as part of the team. After discussing working in
research during his time at UCLA with professors who focused on motor development and AE, Dr. French reflected on how the aprons exam most strongly impacted his adapted PE career as it developed a standard in the APE field. When reviewing how he became
interested in behavior management, Dr. French stated that it came from a place of survival, of
dealing with students in a PE classroom setting and trying to control the classroom. His advice
to young professionals was to go beyond professional collaboration and make positive
connections with other professionals in the field. Strengths of APE professionals that were listed
include specialization in more in depth physical education information, excellent communication
skills, and the ability for collaboration between professionals. Challenges for the profession
according to Dr. French include a lack of time spent with family and the need for a good
statistician to help with professional research. Upon reflecting on his career, Dr. French
expressed that he should have collaborated more with his chair, and dived deeper into different
types of inclusion research.
