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 ??!!

tomhardy, in a truly ideal world without the experience of raising my ds I would agree with you.
However the whole inclusion arguement has only increased our isoation.
Inclusion for some is completely doable, however in ds's case it only seeks to increase his isolation and prevents him even more from being able to to a part of the community - sad but very true and I am sure others agree.

to be

YaNbu at all! I totally agree with you.

I can't belive a group of parents would set out to take something away from a group of disabled children! It just seems spectacuarly mean. Anyway if the money for the centre was provided by grants for disabled children surely they will be denied?

YANBU, the photos of your sensory room make it very obvious that it is not appropriate for the room to be used as an extension of the soft play. It is not a room to be run around in and equipment jumped on - which is what would happen. It looks to me like a therapy room, not a play place.

Good luck.

I would do as someone else says and pop along to soft play this week a few times before the meeting and makes notes of some of the stuff you see going on (you might be in trouble if you start taking photos) then ask if there is any way the leisure centre can guarantee 100% that those things wont happen in the sensory room?

Also, I am assuming the soft play has some kind of damamge insurance or at least a pot where money comes from to pay from damages, whereas your room probably doesn't? Would parents be willing to sign something to say they take personal responsibility for damage caused by themselves or their children? I doubt it! Show them the brochures, point out just how very expensive this equipment is and what the consequnces for your children would be if it got broken.

I think it was me that mentioned photos - just to clarify, I'd got the impression that at the times Apocalypse usually goes she's often the only one using the facility. I wasn't suggesting trying to get photos of little darlings in full destructive mode, more of the spilt drinks, smeared food, empty crisp packets, etc, that are having a detrimental effect (but are at least relatively easy to clean) in a softplay area but would be potentially catastrophic in the SR.

YANBU at all and I think you need to fight against it

they shouldn't have access and if they demand it then the enterence cost should be raised by one pound per child and then go into a specific pot to cover any potential damage to the SN area.

YANBU, the SR is there for a specific purpose - how dare those parents complain? They should be thanking their lucky stars that their child does not need a room like that. There is a small one at the unit at school ds1 goes to, he loves it and staff can take him there when he starts getting stressed, knowing he'll calm down safely.

Where abouts are you, OP? Is it worth some local MN mums with NT children going along to the meeting to say they support the facility remaining exclusive?

YANBU in the slightest. Good luck!

YANBU at all.

tell the soft play area to build their own sensory area,ours has and its great for all. YANBU at all, SN kids dont get enough access to services as it is, mabe the NT children would like to spend the day straped in a wheelchair

'I can't belive a group of parents would set out to take something away from a group of disabled children!'
Happens a lot

When ds3 was in MS a few parents took offence that their NNEB was made redundant but ds3's (separately funded as he was non verbal then, in nappieds, and now attends a SNU Base) remained. They uised to deliberately get between him and the TA with their child and make the child take TA's hand saying 'you deserve the TA as much as anyone'. Often DS3 would become so disorientated by the routine change we would have to take hiom home crying.

Ostensibly it started as a protest that the girl with cancer couldn't get help and I'd neither have begrudged her nor refused to join in any protest to LEA or Government (cancer counts as medical needs and can cause huge issues wrt accessing help). Why they targeted an ASD 5 year old though I will never understand and cannot forgive, and it wasn't the lovely girl with cancer who was being handed to the TA but totally well NT kids with parents who held a very MC form of entitlement attitude; DH ahd a few comments about 'we pay our taxes and you don;t'- in fact DH worked permanent nights so could help out on school run but was far from slacking.

Sorry- seem to have a few remaining issues. Will go now.

Yes, sn toys are a farkin rip off, oh and forgot to mention the one accesible swing in the town as in the only piece of play equipment accesible to physically disabled children was trashed, prior to that the people who NEEDED to use it often had to wait for someones little princess to finish, in fact I know somebody who dared to point out the fact their child did not need to be on it as there were 6 other swings to choose on, the response they got was 'why shouldn't you have to queue like anybody else'

We don't have a swing anymore, the nearest ones 10 miles away now

The more I think about this, the more angry I get! I can't believe how selfish these parents are being. Where does this ridiculous sense of entitlement come from. They have adequate facilities for their children, but that simply isn't enough for them is it!

Sorry, but it make me so annoyed!

I wish you luck in tackling these idiots.

stop being silly it should be for sll children to benefit from. why not have sessions just for able bodied children once or twice a week the disabled kids use it the rest of the time?
most schools/stadiums offer special slots for children with disabilities as its fair to do so, just offer the same for able bodied kids too.

Maybe where you are knittedbreast, but not here. Not that there's much to do anyway.

There is already an adequate sensory for mainstream children, they don't need to use ours.

Heaven forbid children who already have EVERYTHING to choose from should have to miss out on one, little thing. Eh the hospital has a fab hydropool, they should open it up to everyone !

Silly??? Really??

In fairness one of our local play centres does offer a SN session (we have 4 locally, just the one)

AT 8am on a Sunday morning.

maybe the NT kids would like that? Self supervised and cleaned of course

KnittedBreast- I don't think OP is being silly at all. Often facilities such as these aren't respected and get trashed. The children with SN have very few places to go and this sensory room as been created especially for them with funding especially for them. There are plenty of facilities for the able bodied children to use. That is not the case for the SN kids.