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Things To Do with your SEN Child
When searching for days out that can educate, enrich or enhance your children’s childhood experiences, you will undoubtedly be looking for things to do that are both memorable and good value. Being a parent of a SEN child can put obstacles in the way of such days out, when you have to consider any additional needs your child might have.
Talking about SEN children is hard because it’s so easy to make sweeping generalisations about what a SEN child might need. Ultimately, there is no one size fits all approach that works as it covers such a wide range of challenges. Whether your child has sensory or physical needs, difficulty with cognition and learning, social and emotional difficulties or communicative or interaction challenges; it presents you as a parent with challenges that other parents might not face when it comes to sourcing educational or fun days out.
Whilst it is always lovely to hear recommendations on activities and days out, what is not fun as a parent of a SEN child is being preached to by others as to what they should or shouldn’t be doing. Each child is different, let alone breaking down the complexities of children with SEN needs. YOU know YOUR child and that is the reason why I am not going to preach to you about what experiences will work for your SEN child. I can only talk to you about my own experiences, what days out work for my children and what suits their SEN needs.
Based on my own personal journey, I have found the search for SEN based experiences exhausting but not entirely without reward. I was able to find places out there that do accommodate children with additional needs. Some of the good finds that I came across included:
Autism Friendly Screenings at Cineworld Cinema’s, across the UK – It seems that Cineworld host regular SEN friendly screenings. Such provisions in place include the lighting being left on, reduced volume levels and no trailers to sit through.
Think Tank Science Museum – Birmingham
With over 200 hands on exhibits, this is a wonderful day out and provisions in place include ear defenders and a sensory room to relax in. They also hold additional sessions where they open earlier, and your child can enjoy a quieter environment.
Rock Up Climbing Centre – Options in Hull, Whiteley and Birmingham
These centres over SEN friendly sessions specifically designed to help children avoid dysregulation and have visual stories to help prepare visitors of all ages and needs.
There are only a handful here but certainly gives you something to go on based upon my research. I don’t want to offer too many recommendations into such experiences solely based on research, as I prefer to advise on experiences we have actively attended and enjoyed as a family day out.
Being in a position where I am actively seeking to find new days out and experiences that suit my children with SEN needs, we have been able to go out and put some experiences to the test!
I cannot reiterate enough, that these are experiences that have worked with my children and their own specific requirements, and certainly not a one size fits all approach. You will hopefully get a good feel for what worked for us and just maybe, it might work for you based on our feedback!
Alpaca Trekking
We visited the Wonderful Alpaca Trekking Experience which you can read about in my blog post here: https://www.wonderdays.co.uk/blog/meeting-alpacas-a-morning-petting-and-trekking-with-alpacas
We had a great experience and whilst they do not advertise themselves as SEN orientated, they do a lot of work with the local community for people with additional needs. They only host walks in small groups and the pace is a leisurely stroll with no time constraints. The sensory elements of touching and feeding the animals is wonderful and my children loved it. The man running it has a very therapeutic approach to both his animals and his guests and the pace of the experience is clearly governed by its attendees.
No surprise to see another family orientated experience make the list of recommendations. The evidence of the therapeutic benefits of being around animals is out there for all to see. They do also provide some amazing sensory experiences involving animal feeding and interaction.
Bear Grylls Experiences
Including but not restricted to: https://www.wonderdays.co.uk/vouchers/the-bear-grylls-challenge-experience and https://www.wonderdays.co.uk/vouchers/the-bear-grylls-ifly-experience
This wonderful centre offers a multitude of different experiences that your child might enjoy, from submersive underwater experiences to high ropes and assault courses. From our experience it was lovely that the activities use a variety of sensory effects including audio, visual, touch and smell designed to enhance the overall experience for each area.
Not only is this a wonderfully immersive experience for any child and a wonderfully sensory experience, they do offer excellent provision for Children with SEN needs. Relaxed SEN sessions have reduced sound, an increase in lighting where necessary, removal of strong scents and fewer visitors to help reduce stress and anxiety.
Shaun-WonderDays Customer Service Manager