Santa Clarita: Playtime for kids with special needs

 

 

Back, from left: club members Ken Petersen, Bart Aikman, Jim Lentini, and Nick Lentini during the dedication.

It’s recess at Old Orchard Elementary School in Santa Clarita, Calif., USA, and 25 children are happily at play.

Some bury themselves in the colorful plastic balls that fill an inflatable ring. One swings contentedly on a portable swing. Others hold the edges of a multicolored parachute, lifting the silky fabric into the air as one of their classmates ducks underneath and runs to the other side, laughing.

The kids having so much fun with the ball pit, swing, and parachute probably don’t know it, but their equipment was purchased using a $2,000 contribution from the Rotary Club of Santa Clarita Valley. Club members decided to make the donation after learning that many of the school’s children with special needs, who are affected by cerebral palsy, autism, and other physical and mental disabilities, were unable to use the regular playground.

Ruth Gauthier, the school’s principal, worked with the club to select the items. The new toys help the children, ages four to seven, improve their motor skills and release energy, making them calmer when they return to the classroom, says Heather Nottingham, an adapted physical education specialist at the school.

The items are also a source of good, old-fashioned fun. “Kids like the feel of the ball pit,” Nottingham says. “They like anything with movement.”

The club has since donated an additional $1,000 for more playground equipment.