{"id":25399,"date":"2019-12-13T18:55:52","date_gmt":"2019-12-13T23:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=25399"},"modified":"2019-12-13T18:56:01","modified_gmt":"2019-12-13T23:56:01","slug":"sensory-hallway-helps-ease-kids-anxiety-at-sarc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/sensory-hallway-helps-ease-kids-anxiety-at-sarc\/","title":{"rendered":"Sensory Hallway helps ease kids\u2019 anxiety at SARC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A new sensory hallway is helping to give local kids a\nbreak from the sensory overload at the Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex with\na quiet place to learn and grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Built in partnership with Paths 4 U, the hallway was\nintroduced as an alternative to stimulating environments while helping \u201ckids to\nbuild connections through sight, sounds and touch while encouraging kids to\nredirect overwhelming emotions or behaviours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Designed for kids of all ages and developmental stages,\nthe hallway is awash in activities for physical movements and challenges that\npromote the development of motor skills \u2013 and has already proved a success with\nlocal youngsters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe got this so kids could kind of have a space to do\nsome physical literacy as well as have some intellectual stimulation to deal\nwith behaviours and develop some confidence in physical literacy,\u201d explains\nJodi Alexander, Community Programs Coordinator for the Town of Aurora. \u201cYou can\nuse it for multiple purposes. Sometimes it can be overwhelming out there in the\narena. It can be noisy with a lot of things going on \u2013 the whistles, the pucks,\nthe swimming \u2013 and this is a space away from everything for everyone to just\nkind of get away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As soon as you walk through the door, you\u2019re greeted by a\nfloor of lily pads for kids to jump from one to the other. Next to that is\nanother jumping obstacle, designed to let kids get the hang of jumping from\nside to side while maintaining forward momentum. Next is a hopscotch course\nwith a twist incorporating various shapes and letters from the alphabet, while\nwall-mounted challenges encourage jumping and reaching to different challenging\nheights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven in our programs [like pre-school] kids are getting\na bit distracted and not focused, so we\u2019ll bring them out here, let them do a\nlap or two, and bring them back to their room so they are a little bit more\nfocused when they go back in. We\u2019re already getting some great feedback. I had\na parent at the (SARC) desk the other day who said when their son is playing\nhockey their daughter comes in here and plays almost the entire time and brings\nher little friends from the team. In terms of our programs we have good\nfeedback that when the kids are kind of struggling to focus and struggling to\npay attention, or it is just one of those days that is a tough day, they will\nbring them out here, let them run around, jump around, crawl around and burn\nsome of that energy so it is helping them refocus. For camps, it is nice because\nwe use it as a transition hallway. If they are going outside or they are going\nto be going back in, it is easy to get the kids focused because we can say,\n\u2018Okay, we\u2019re all going to jump!\u2019 and it gives them something to occupy them\nother than behaviours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SARC\u2019s sensory hallway has proved such a success that\nMs. Alexander says the Town is looking for ways to bring similar concepts into\nother public spaces as needs grow along with the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the features already installed, the new\nyear will bring a splash of colour to the sensory hallway as art students at\nSt. Maximilian Kolbe Catholic High School brainstorm designs for a mural\nspanning the length of the space with work to begin in mid-winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re at the SARC, as a parent or patron, as an adult or child, if you\u2019re feeling like you kind of want to burn some energy or take your kids somewhere so they have something to do while you\u2019re waiting, it is just a space that is free to use and is here whenever we\u2019re here,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new sensory hallway is helping to give local kids a break from the sensory overload at the Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex with a quiet place to learn and grow. Built in partnership with Paths 4 U, the hallway was introduced as an alternative to stimulating environments while helping \u201ckids to build connections through sight, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/2019-12-12-05.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6BF","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-03 08:41:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}