Session Spotlight: Sensorise

This holiday session is for families with children with more profound and complex additional needs and their siblings. It provides a stimulating, interactive and sensory experience using music, messy play, art and our multisensory equipment.

Music therapist, Emily, kicks off the session through song, inviting families to participate with musical instruments and The SNAP Team assisting where mobility is more difficult.

Messy, sensory play is also available as it’s a great way for children to develop their motor skills as well as learn more  about textures, tastes and sensations. It can involve getting hands stuck into wet materials like foam, or dry materials like sand.

For the second half of Sensorise, Emily leads through interactive sensory stories which aid communication through touch and music. As Emily tells the story, family or staff create sensory experiences that mirror what’s happening in the story. This gives children the opportunity to not only listen to the story but feel it, incorporating all the senses where appropriate  including touch, smell, sight, sounds and taste.

Our families love these sessions! There were so many smiling faces and pure joy in the room!

One parent said: “My daughter loves coming to Sensorise sessions for the wonderful music by Emily and seeing her friends she has known for years. As a parent I absolutely love coming to SNAP to see the joy she gets, and also to see and chat with all the wonderful people we have met over the years. It is like a breath of fresh air to be somewhere where we feel normal.”

The Team from Mini Wonders, a specialist paediatric neurological physiotherapy centre in Chelmsford, joined us for a couple of sessions over the summer along with Aaron Preston from The Great Little OT Practice, Maldon. Lots of SNAP families struggle to access these kinds of services due to waiting lists and the volume of need for them. SNAP asked them to come in and offer their expert advice as well as share tips and ideas with SNAP parents.

The Great Little OT Practice’s Aaron will be returning to The SNAP Centre for two coffee mornings to answer any questions, give some informal advice and help wherever he can with anything OT related.

Sensorise occurs during the school holidays. For more information about this session, call 01277 211300.

SNAP would like to thank St. James’s Place Charitable Foundation, The Charles S French Charitable Trust, Matchroom Sport Charitable Foundation and The Tula Trust for their support of holiday sessions at SNAP.

We’d also like to thank Chelmsford Star Co-op Community Fund, the Douglas Allen Estate Agents Charity Fund, the Saffron Community Fund, and the W G Stacey Family Fund which are administered by Essex Community Foundation for also supporting holiday sessions at SNAP.