Sensory play is important for the development of all children, and that’s even truer for those on the autism spectrum and kids with hearing loss or vision impairment. Here are 5 places locally where kids can go to enjoy a sensory experience.
The Sensory Room at Windreach
Windreach offers the only publicly available sensory room on the island, and starting in September you can book the room for 30-minute sessions, which makes it easy to enjoy with your child. The space is a multi-sensory environment, and while everyone can enjoy it, it has shown to be particularly useful for individuals with diverse support needs and behavioural challenges. Windreach says, “A Sensory Room may be used to educate, stimulate, relax, calm, or energize, as a multi-sensory experience or as a single sensory focus, simply by adapting the lighting, atmosphere, sounds, and textures to the needs of the participant at the time of use.” If you would like to book a visit to the Sensory Room or find out more please contact rlawrence@windreach.bm or call 238 2469.
The touch pools at BAMZ
After being closed for years, the touch pools have recently reopened at the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum, & Zoo. The newly designed, larger pools allow children to physically interact with Bermuda’s marine life through touch. Mollusks, sponges, and sea cucumbers are just a few of the animals you can see and touch here. The touch pools are located inside the “Tales of Two Islands” exhibit building. Keep in mind the touch pools are available at select times to ensure that appropriate staffing is present to monitor the handling of the animals on display.
Listen to the birds at Paget Marsh
Offering a glimpse back in time to pre-settlement Bermuda, this lush 25-acre nature reserve is covered with a dense cedar and palmetto forest. It looks much the same as it did before the arrival of the first settlers. The pond and marsh are home to a variety of waterfowl and woodland birds, who call to each other and present a wonderful sensory experience for the ears! The wheelchair-accessible wooden boardwalk is currently under renovation by Bermuda National Trust.
Visit the new Keeping Calm exhibition at Masterworks
New inside Masterworks’ Rick Faries Gallery is Keeping Calm, a selection of botanical and interior paintings by Louisa Bermingham. Her artwork is described as “an escape from an increasingly intense world of demands and pressures and injustices by being happy and calm via simple exploration of texture, light, colour, pattern and line.” While this exhibition would be an enjoyable and relaxing experience for anyone, it also provides a beautiful, calm environment for children to practice their visual processing. Keeping Calm will be on display through October 24.
Listen to the sounds at Sea Glass Beach
Perhaps even more impressive than the colorful pieces of glass at Sea Glass Beach is the gentle tinkling sound you’ll hear as the water ripples over the shore. You’ll have to listen carefully to hear it, but there’s no mistaking the unique sound that’s quite different from the usual crashing of waves you’d expect to hear on a beach. Be sure to wear your shoes because some pieces of glass here are still sharp.
