Recommended Resource: Creating a "Crash and Bump" Sensory Play Space
This month's recommended resource isn't a book, a podcast or a website - it's a home renovation idea! But before you get scared away by the thought of a big project, please stay with me. It's easier than you may think to create a sensory-rich "crash and bump" space in your home.
One thing we consistently recommend to families providing foster care is to make their home sensory friendly, offering opportunities for kids to receive the sensory input they need in healthy and safe ways. Creating a designated "crash and bump" space allows kids to do just that.
This is something that I have extensive personal experience with, being the mom of two children with very significant sensory needs. This has been an ever-evolving process for me, spanning many developmental stages and two houses (we moved when my twins were 3). I have had lots of trial and error, input from various therapists and professionals, and many iterations of sensory spaces that have grown and adapted to our changing needs. I have had to compromise a lot of my own desires for my home (bye-bye beautiful non-washable carpets and fragile decorations) but the good news is that I have still been able to create a space that works for the kids AND the adults who call our house their home.
Here are my top tips for creating a sensory-rich play space for the children you are caring for:
Become a Sensory Detective
Start to think about the things your kids are doing in your home that you are always telling them not to. If they keep gravitating back to them, it is highly likely that they aren't doing it to be naughty, but to meet a sensory need.
For example, as a toddler my daughter was constantly hanging off the towel racks. I told her a million times that it was unsafe, but she just could not stop. For her fourth birthday, I got her a gymnastics bar and she was absolutely delighted with it. But to my surprise, not only did she love playing with it, she also had fewer meltdowns and was overall more regulated when she had free access to hanging and swinging from her bar any time she wanted to.
Some other sensory seeking behaviors I have observed: jumping on the bed, jumping off the couch, crawling inside small spaces, hanging upside down off of furniture, and banging the bathroom door against the tile wall.
Find a Designated Space
Some families are lucky enough to have a designated playroom in their home - and I confess, I am often jealous of people whose homes are big enough to have an entire room dedicated JUST to play! If you are fortunate to have a home with this kind of flexible space, it would be truly epic to turn it into a crash and bump playroom.
In my home, our main play space doubles as our living room, and our secondary play space doubles as my twins' bedroom, so I didn't have an entire room I could carve out for a play space. However, a few years ago I did carve out one fourth of my unfinished basement for this purpose. I cleared out all the stuff being stored there, vacuumed up the cobwebs, put up a few coats of moisture blocking paint on the concrete walls, covered the floors with interlocking foam mats, and stapled clearance bed sheets to the ceiling joists to cover up the exposed insulation. Once I had my blank slate, I filled the space with a variety of swings, hanging apparatus, mattresses, bean bags, a balance beam, small trampoline, and a foam pit. I purposely made this a space that could grow with my children by installing hanging brackets that are rated to hold 1,000 pounds, so that we can switch out the apparatus regularly based on what they are currently interested in.
If you don't have basement space, you can still be creative about where to put a sensory area in your home. I've seen some families combine multiple children into one bedroom for sleeping so they can use another bedroom as a play room. I've seen other families convert an unused formal dining room into their play space. If your home has both a living room and a family room, maybe one could be reimagined for this purpose.
But Don't Limit it to That Space
After I created my basement sensory gym, I thought all of my sensory challenges were solved. But I began to notice that we needed more than just one space, especially since I don't feel comfortable having my kids play there unsupervised and I can't spend all day in the basement. My kids also needed opportunities to meet their sensory needs within the main living space, that they could access freely at any time.
One of the best purchases I've ever made for my home was something that's not at all marketed as a sensory play item, but has been a lifesaver for this purpose - this hanging egg chair. We keep it right in the living room, and it's pretty enough to fit in with the style of my home and not stick out like a sore thumb. It is occupied almost all of the time by one member of the family or another (even the adults!). One child loves laying on it upside down, while the other enjoys relaxing in it with her stuffies and blankets. The gentle swinging motion is incredibly soothing to them and it has calmed many moments of sensory overload.
Another simple change I made in my living room was switching out my regular area rug with a padded foam rug. I found one that is printed like an actual decorative rug on one side so it still looks like it fits the room, but it is easily wipeable so that when the slime, snacks, and spilled nail polish inevitably end up on it, I don't have to fuss like I did before with my wool rug. The other great thing about this rug is that it cushions little falls, so when active play is going on, we have less bumps and boo-boos.
We also keep our two play couches (a Nugget and a Wild Things Dream Couch) in the living room, which blend into the decor while also pulling extra duty as climbers, play houses, padding, slides, crash pads, nap mats, and much more.
Again, the items I have in my home are not prescriptive for everyone - they are what work best for my family's needs. I encourage each family to discuss what items you think would meet the needs of your own household. This will likely be a trial and error process and will almost certainly adapt as your kids grow and develop or, if you're a foster parent, be different for each child you care for.
Have Fun!
I already mentioned that when kids have opportunities to meet their sensory needs, they are calmer, more regulated, and happier. It can truly be a paradigm shift for parents to move away from teaching kids the rules of how to behave in the house and towards adapting the house to the kids' needs. But if you can embrace this, I promise you will be happier too because you will be spending less time stressing over your kids' behavior and more time having fun with them.
Of course, that doesn't mean that you can allow kids to continue doing things that are unsafe or destructive. There are certainly times and places where kids need to be redirected to a safer activity or place. But hopefully having a fun crash and bump area within your home will provide a safe and healthy outlet for them!
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