To not want non disabled children using our hard fought for sensory room ?

[ApocalypseCheeseToastie]

I'm probably going to get murdered for this but meh.

We live in a town with 3 softplay areas and various activites for nt children to do, for special needs children there is sod all, no softplay sessions, no sensory room. Nada.

A few years back me and some others started to go to meetings with our local council to arrange activities and eventually, after much fundraising a softplay area was built in our leisure centre and sensory room was built in our softplay area, it was entirely funded using money allocated for children with disabilities although the softplay is open to all and we get 8 hours per week when it is soley for use for disabled children up to the age of 15. HOWEVER, only disabled children are allowed access to the sensory room, the sensory room is also used by disabled adults and is the only one for 100 miles, it's a valued facility.

Parents have been complaining and demanded access to the sensory room and a meeting is being arranged to review the situation.

Bearing in mind the children/parents who use the softplay aren't always entirely respectful (taking food etc in) and the sure start centre does have a small sensory room for babies/toddlers, aibu to think, sod off, we only get 8 hours a week as it is, I don't want this expensive, specialist equipment being trashed by kids who don't need to be there and have 1001 other things to choose from ??!!

This is insane.
Some parents can't bear to think of their little darlings being deprived, and probably pass by your sensory room feeling all envious.

Having one child in our family, sometimes the others feel really jealous of the super OT sessions and our 5 year old NT screamed blue murder when she wasn't allowed to be in a sensory session (wanted to dance to the groovy light show!).
Still, I am so glad they don't have sn. I deal with their grumps about not having any fun and get on with life.
SN equipment is so expensive, NT children have so many opportunities, it makes me sad, and a litttle fearful for the future of our SN kids if they get something provided and NT parents regard it as an advantage, or discrimination.

The problem is that most parents of children potentially using the room wouldnt have a clue about how much it all costs OR how it has been paid for. It will be taken for granted that its the same as the ball pools and beanbags in the soft play area.

Once you know a specialist play mat costs 2k you tend to treat it with a bit of respect. Particulary if you know there is no money for another one.

If you have no real investment in the sensory room you are not that likely to cherish it are you?

IME NT kids get bored of the stuff after the intial novelty wears off anyway. A child with complex needs may spend an hour on a water mat gazing at the disco ball lights, how many NT kids will do that?

Chipping Ideally it would be great to use the room as a resource for all but I really do not think it would work. It WILL be destroyed. I am sorry to sound so negative but I really think it would be trashed within weeks.

YANBU if you will be denied access or will have to pay for the maintenance of the equipment, which will clearly be much more heavily used.

Where exactly did the original funds come from? Read the fine print. A lot of funding bodies have very specific requirements as to how and by whom the equipment/facilities they fund is used.

At the meeting, I would make the point that, since it is proposed that the room is made available for all to use, you want written assurance that it will be maintained to its current standard and that ALL cleaning, supervision, insurance, replacement equipment etc will from here forward be paid for entirely by the council/leisure centre, without increased user costs for SN children.

Apocalypse, that's outrageous that you only found out about it by mistake!

AFAIK, one of the issues is that while some people understand (a little) of what the room is for and why it is so important for those with SN, many others would not. My own observation (see above) of how our local sensory room is treated - not maliciously, just without thought - is a case in point.

Some photos for those of you on facebook

You have to be there to get the full effect but it's an idea of what we have

It would be nice if all the kids could mix, but being realistic, sensory room stuff is way too expensive. YANBU.

YANBU. It's funded for disabled use and should remain solely for that use.

Apocalypse, those pics are lovely, you should fight to keep it!

Apocalype, it looks really good! I can imagine my (not disabled) son running riot in there and trashing it - so YANBU at all!

Hope you don't mind but I have sent you a request

That looks brilliant Apocalypse DS's school has a small sensory room for the kids but nothing on that scale.

Ooohhh, go on then

Where is this place? It looks fab!
We go to SPACE in Preston at £40 an hour, only manage it a couple of times a year because of the cost but it is worth every penny

I love SPACE, it's brilliant. I think they do some Saturday sessions for a lot less than £40 though.

Whilst I do not think YABU I do also think that saying sn children are being excluded from other services in your area must be a bit inacurate as it is not legal to exclude people. maybe it is more like take up of these services is poor. sn and disabled children are able to and do use the soft play at my local centre.

also surely the sensory room in the sure start centre is open to everyone so is wrong to say it is theirs. I think you are within your rights to feel this is ours, tho.

I would not resist the mixed use of the room as I think if managed properly this can lead to positives. I would definatly push for shared funding and full supervision if opened to the general public.

I do feel for your cause but think that point blankly resisiting it would BU. you need to write to your local MP to discuss funding and access.

We have a small but well resourced sensory room at my workplace. The non disabled siblings of our children tend to go a bit mad when the see it.

They typically run around turning everything on a the same time, jumping on everything and generally getting a bit giddy. This is totally natural and understandable. After they have had a go at everything they get a bit bored and go and look for something else to do. For their siblings it is a very different experience. It can be the most stimulating part of their day or the most relaxing.

It's an amazing room I can see why you want to keep It so.

We like to have the place to ourselves though :)
Actually SPACE is £35 per hour if only one family is using it

I used to use a hydrotherapy pool with my severely disabled DS1, but as the charity who ran it started to run out of money, they just took anyone's cash. It was hired out most of the time to a Little Dippers group. Many disabled groups couldn't afford the pool hire prices (started off £1.50 per child and ended up being £50 for an hour). The money the pool was bought out of, was from a disabled children's charity.

I think you have the right to exclusive use. Just by the way mainstream life is organised, many severely disabled children never get to use basic mainstream facilities such as parks, pools and schools

Cheese - I wish I could see it, but I don't do face book. Can you load them to your profile page?

I don't think anyone (on here) is advocating that the room should be open to all NT children running amok from the SP area. I see it as a room that needs that could be booked by NT families at a time it is not inconveniencing SN families, which would raise money and awareness. Of course they need to be made aware of the cost of the room and the rules of its use.

However, as I said, I think the soft play area should be exclusively for SN children & their guests and I am still not clear why this is not the case?

HOW & WHO has arranged a meeting about this without you?

Who is now 'runs' the soft play and the SR room? I'm getting confused :(

Sorry didn't mean to shout I meant to use ^^ not **

Cheesey you know you are nbu, the room looks fab, i am not surprised you want to keep it that way.

go fight for it, you all worked hard to raise money to fund it obviously.

wishing you all the luck, let me know how you get on

I think there is another 'possible' way. If you can charge non-disabled children for using it, it might help raise funds for more sessions of exclusive use of the main soft play, or alternative facilities perhaps?

The disabled children I know would be more destructive than NT kids I'm afraid. That is the nature of their disabilities e.g., severe autism, severe learning disabilities with challenging behaviour