Hello there!
My name is Jenna and I have been married almost 12 yrs to my wonderful husband and we have 3 adorable kids. My daughter who is 10 and the only girl, my middle child and oldest son who is 8 and diagnosed with a seizure disorder and auditory processing disorder, and a 7 year old boy. :) I stumbled on this message board while googling info for a project I am working on and when I found this I knew this would be the best place to ask. :)
So I have a long background in preschool teaching, daycare owner, nanny, sunday school teacher etc. I also have a special needs coaching biz that I started after struggling to find care for my son with seizures. I train nannies and coach them along etc. I will talk more about that later.
Anyway one dream that has been on my shoulders lately and I am working on putting together for the spring. Is a sensory friendly party for the special needs kids in our community. I am doing this as a project for my daughter's leadership team at church. But I am also doing it as I have worked with many special needs kids and know a lot of friends out here in the community who have special needs kids who jsut don't go to many parties etc. because of the noise and chaos level of a typical party. :) What I would like to know from you experts out here (and if you have a special needs child I believe you are an expert! haha) is what would be some ideal activities that you would like to see if you were to go to a "sensory friendly" party. Meaning if you were to take your special needs child to a party what would be the ideal setting in your mind?
So far one idea I have already planned on having was a "quiet area" where if a child becomes super overwhelmed their parents or caregivers could take them to chill out for awhile and get away from any overstimulation. I was planning on putting small pop up tents in the quiet room with some small cd players (with headphones for the kids who will wear them) with some mozart or jazz music where the kids could "reset their senses" etc. I am also looking for crafts ideas that are fairly simple for kids with limited fine motor skills etc.
Ok so how is that for a big long intro and lots of questions? lol sorry
Jenna
