If it's the Special Needs session at the local splash park and you're not a SN family, would you stay or go?

[Waitrosejunkie1]

What would you do?

In a place like this it would be very difficult to keep people out who shouldn't be there but that doesn't mean people shouldn't have common decency and stay away when it is not their time.

Putting the moral question aside for a minute, on a purely practical level lots of people ignore / don't read signs.

You only have to look at age segregated play areas (and IME it's parents of very young children who are the worst offenders - little Jude is such a good climber and so fearless, so he uses the over 8s play area instead of the adjacent younger children's play equipment even though he is only 2 and the older children must all moderate their play to be careful of him).

No dogs off leads in the park signs, no dogs on the beach full stop signs, no climbing on the ancient monuments, no feeding the ducks bread - all get ignored.

Given that people generally don't read signs in all areas of life it seems lip service at best for a council to say they are "putting on" a session for one group in society if "putting on" the session just means social media posts, an ad in the local paper and a sign.

An employee of whoever was running the session making loud, clear announcements every 15 minutes from 4 pm onwards that from 5pm the splash park is for the exclusive use of special needs families might have done a better job of clearing out those who that did not apply to who were blundering on in their own bubble not really paying attention to signage ...

It would seem wrong in an unfenced area (nobody seems able to say quote how splash parks are set up, whether they are fenced so that who enters can be monitored or just part of the park) to challenge individuals about whether any of their children had special needs on the spot, that doesn't prevent regular announcements and somebody official looking in a council employee/ whatever company or organisation puts on the session T shirt making announcements which would get through to people who shouldn't be there better than an easily ignored/ missed/ misinterpreted sign.

But an area being quiet isn't just for special
Needs also. Neither of mine have additions needs, but both hate crowded places and loud noises. When are they supposed to go then? Not when special need sessions as not special needs, not when busy as hate crowds

Samcro Wed 20-Jul-16 22:34:39
Oh bless those poor nt kids who cant access something for 2 hours a months
How terrible for them, they will suffer so much,

so some one thinks this post was spite ful!! just shows how self absorbed people are. but then maybe they have been lucky and havnt had kids follow thiers round staring....

But an area being quiet isn't just for special
Needs also.

It is if the sign says so.

The other problem is if its a pubpic area does the group have the right to reserve it?
It might have just been an informal meeting at this particular Park but they may not have the right to reserve it for that sessions sole access.
(i have a sn child)

Neither of mine have additions needs, but both hate crowded places and loud noises. When are they supposed to go then? Not when special need sessions as not special needs, not when busy as hate crowds

Perhaps they don't go then. Perhaps they could enjoy all the 'privileges' that Santa described so eloquently, stuff that their SN children will never be able to do but yours take for granted?

Early in the morning Artandco? Last thing before closing?

I hate to say this but I don't care that much. I'm sure you can find a time in the other 54 hours a week that are available to you.

You'll be arguing your baby's asleep in the buggy, so you cant fold it just because someone in a wheelchair has got on next ...

Having severe sensory issues counts as a special need.

If its like the splash pool near us - sounds very similar - there are a few things that could be improved on. Ours is just some fountains and a sunken area for water to collect for kids to play in. All free, no tickets or timings.

The signs have been (lots have said this on fb) easily missed, if not actively looking for them, faded, at child height not in adults eyeline.

There is nothing on the local town council Web page about the sessions, I just checked knowing what I was looking for. People expected everyone to know via signs or social media groups - local civic page only has 1000 followers, I only knew due to fb posts in groups I follow. Lots of people don't follow or aren't part of such groups- I know from my own NCT group (small sample I know) only 50% are part of groups/on fb at all. One who is barely looks at fb.

The park is self managed there are no staff in attendance on a regular basis - from a job vacancy ad on the council website it seems to be checked throughout the day sporadically. Maybe they do need to provide some staff for these sessions to get them established.

I think the sessions are a great idea but the management of it needs to be considered. I don't think people necessarily stayed at our recent session to be difficult I honestly think the majority just didn't know it was happening based on what they have said on local social media pages.

Lots more publicity is needed to raise awareness.

Lynda - no. But most children have school until 3.30pm. On a Saturday for example if I didn't know I would think oh the pool is open 10-7pm, I would assume it quiets down around 5pm so would go them. I doubt splash pools are open much later.

Also as a family with a child with disabilities ( my youngest sister), we would hope a special need session wouldn't exclude anyone else either. Yes it should be priority spaces for additional needs, but children and adults with additional needs shouldn't be segregated off.

To me a splash pool is noisy, full stop. So I just would never take my children who hate noise at any time of day. They would have to do something else.

Yes of course they do honk. No one said they didn't.

Waitrose I'm quite sure you will get the situation resolved to your liking. You've been thoroughly unpleasant on this thread.

People have simply pointed out to you who hard to police and you can only say that statistically had to be some nt there but can't say for sure if hard to tell sn or related to one.

I'm sorry that your dc missed out. But there is no need for the unpleasantness on this thread as soon as someone doesn't completely agree with you.

Oh fuck off Mousey, and all the others patronisingly lecturing the mothers of SN kids to be more "pleasant" and understanding of the parents who can go to a splash park any bloody time they want. Jump on the ignorant posters who think SN kids don't deserve two hours a month to be able to use those facilities.

I was thinking perhaps the poster meant my children don't have asd or similar but I can see now that isn't the case.
Artandco - This isn't segregating off. It is about enabling children to access facilities.

I don't like splash parks when they're busy - my youngest isn't 3 yet, so I don't want to take him near one when it's filled with crowds of older children. I'm sure there's parents of older, school age, NT children who also prefer quieter times. But there's ways of going when it's quiet without intruding on SN sessions - first thing in the morning when it's just opened for the day tends to be pretty quiet, for example.

Ds goes to special school. He isn't segregated off. It is what is best for him. He goes to special needs groups because that is what is best for him. He cannot cope with mainstream stuff. His life in mainstream school was hell. Not because of anything anyone was doing on purpose but because of 30 in a class ( he now has 3 in his class), the noise of just other children talking, the stimulating environment etc. He needs activities that exclusively for children with sn because otherwise he has no hope of going to them.

We gave up taking our dd with autism to 'Autism Friendly' screenings at the local cinema as it became too full of parents taking NT toddlers. The parents would stare, tut and make comments whenever any of the children with autism started stimming of making noises.
(People were advertising on various facebook pages that the autism friendly screening were good to take NT toddlers to).
We had just 1 session a month that we hoped our dd could enjoy a trip to the cinema without the fear of stares, tuts etc but that's now gone.

Schwabischeweihnachtskanne - I don't think fencing in itself is particularly relevant here - the public, free to use, unmanned splash park near me is fenced. As is the freely open to the public children's playground within the same park. Most children's playgrounds inside bigger parks are fenced in my area. I always assumed this was more about keeping dogs out / allowing the council to close playgrounds for maintenance as necessary than about restricting access to the public.

Fenced and monitored with staff controlling access are 2 separate things.

Iceroad

Another beautifully pleasant interaction on this thread proving my point perfectly.

Well done!

Yes you parents of kids with SN, get back in your boxes and be humble.

To the OP, yes we would leave.

I think including in your complaint the suggestion of an announcement (with warning time) before 5pm is a good idea. Also extra sessions. Two hours a month is really poor, I'm so sorry you weren't able to attend because of other people's thoughtlessness.

I have children with Sensory PD but it's mild enough that they cope with normal sessions (at the right, non echo-y pool) and I wouldn't take them to a SN session.

MissDuke please see my post of 22:49hmm

That is exactly what I was responding to! It was an extremely rude post though. I think your manner has made this thread nasty where it didn't need to be.