So many of the people I meet who are involved with special needs have an absolute passion for helping children with SEN & disabilities achieve as much as they possibly can.<
Joanna Grace is one such person. Joanna works as a special educational needs and disabilities consultant and is also a registered foster career who has provided short break care for a child with special needs. She supports schools in SEN/D provision and writes educational resources.
Joanna is a big believer in the use of sensory stories and, after being dismayed at their cost, has set about raising funds through Crowdfunding site, Kickstarter, to make her own, low-cost "Sensory Story Project."
But time is limited- she only has 18 days left to reach her funding goal to make a viable project. Funding on Kickstarter is all-or-nothing — projects must reach their funding goals to receive any money at all.
Joanna says, "I fear people look at it and think that because it got such a great start it's bound to finish strong, but it is only me working on it. I've taken 42 days (that was the total length of the project) off work and I'm at my desk from when I wake in the morning until when I go to sleep and the strong start is me contacting everyone I know....but I've used them all up now. I don't know how I'm going to get the project the rest of the way."
She's written for Special Needs Jungle about it and about how you can help - and get something back for yourself. At the end of the post, you can find out more about Sensory Stories.
Should sensory stories be available to families?
Early on in my teaching career I remember a staff meeting (I worked at a school that catered for children with severe and profound special needs) spent discussing what we would spend the literacy budget on for that year. After much agonising we decided to purchase a set of sensory stories.
Sensory stories are a great resource for children with special needs. Sensory stimulation is vital to cognitive development and for children with profound disabilities who can’t access stimulation themselves sensory stories are a fun way of providing it.
For children who struggle with sensory processing sensory stories can be an enjoyable way to encounter and get used to new stimuli. And for everyone they’re engaging – who wouldn’t want to be told a story in which you get to taste something, smell something, touch something, see something and hear something?
But when the sensory stories arrived we were disappointed, they’d been very expensive and the stories weren’t very interesting, the stimuli weren’t very stimulating. I realised that even if they had been great, the price of them would have prevented most families from being able to buy them to share at home.
I know that many families of children with special needs and disabilities struggle to find money for a whole host of things: new equipment, transport, specialist clothing, new treatments etc. It seemed wrong to me that stories which would benefit their children should be priced out of their range. It’s played on my mind ever since and in January, with the launch of Kickstarter in the UK, I saw my way to change it.
I’m currently running The Sensory Story Project on Kickstarter. The aim of the project is to create sensory stories that will be affordable to families, so that they can be bought as birthday presents, read as bedtime stories and shared between the people who are likely to be able to benefit most from them. I only have until the 20th of May to make the project a success (I’m running out of time!)
Kickstarter is a bit like sponsoring, in that backers pledge an amount of money which is only claimed if the project is a success. If the project doesn’t succeed, no money changes hands. However, unlike sponsoring, Kickstarter backers get something in return for their money: rewards!
My project has a long list of rewards to choose from: guides to sensory learning, little sensory toys, t-shirts, sensory experiences and of course sensory stories themselves. Pop across and have a look at the project and see if there is something you’d like.
SNJ has backed the project and made a pledge, and we’d love to have you as a backer too. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sensorystory/sensory-stories [This kickstarter has now ended]
All About Sensory Stories
What are sensory stories?
- Sensory stories are comprised of simple sentences (not babyish, just crisp and clear). Approximately ten sentences in a story.
- Each sentence is paired with a rich sensory stimuli which is shared as, or after, the sentence is read.
- A rich stimulus doesn’t need to be expensive, discovering them takes insight: simple things like darkness, or the bang of a drum are strong experiences. Sometimes the way you deliver an experience can determine whether it is a rich experience or not, so for example – touching a piece of cloth isn’t a great experience, it’s the same as touching your own clothes or your bedding, it’s not very interesting, but if it was corduroy and you were encouraged to rub your fingers across the ribbing then it would become an interesting touch experience.
How can sensory stories be used to benefit individuals with special educational needs and disabilities?
- Sensory stories were originally developed for use with individuals with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD). Individuals with PMLD may not be able to access sensory stimulation for themselves. It is easy to overlook just how much stimulation an able bodied child accesses themselves simply by reaching out to things or turning their head to notice things. Sensory stimulation is needed in order to lay down neural pathways in the brain. If children can’t access it for themselves it is important that we provide it. Beyond the importance of stimulation sensory stories can be used to encourage outward engagement with people and objects, to develop communication and to encourage social connections.
- Children who experience sensory processing difficulties as a part of their condition, (as often co-occur in conditions such as Autism and ADHD) can be helped to encounter sensory stimuli and learn how to regulate and modulate their reaction to these stimuli through using sensory stories. For a child with sensory processing difficulties a day-to-day sensory experience may be overwhelming, as a high pitch noise or fingers down a chalk board might be to someone else. Parents of children with sensory processing difficulties report that with practice their children can learn how to cope with difficult stimuli. Sensory stories can also be used to introduce new stimuli in a fun and safe way, so that when they are encountered in life they’re not so alarming.
- Sensory stories can be used to encourage engagement with literacy and communication, in this way they can benefit children with conditions not yet mentioned and also children without special needs, and even adults! The more senses you utilise whilst learning the more chance you stand of remembering something (I expect you still remember songs you sang at school, I bet there are certain smells that take you back to times in your childhood) I’ve used sensory stories in universities and at conferences and I’m willing to bet that the people I spoke to still remember them!
Please back The Sensory Story Project so that more children can enjoy these stories.
For more information about the stories please watch the short film at The Sensory Story Project and read the project description. You can also visit http://jo.element42.org to see other articles about sensory stories and to contact Jo.
To find out how Jo is getting on running the project you can follow her on twitter at @Jo3Grace
Joanna is a qualified teacher who has taught in mainstream and special school connecting with pupils of all ages and abilities. Joanna has also worked in a consultancy capacity to support schools to further their provision for children with additional learning needs. Since setting up The Sensory Projects Joanna's work has expanded, and she regularly works with adult care providers, heritage settings and families. Joanna draws on experience from her own life as well as insight from the research world and her professional background to inform her work. Joanna has family members with physical disabilities and neurodiverse conditions and has also been a foster carer for children with complex disabilities. Joanna is autistic and this enables her to take in huge amounts of information on a particular topic, Joanna uses her ability to focus on the sensory world to inform her work. Joanna is currently studying for a doctorate in Identity and Belonging for People with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities.
- Using a different lens for neurodivergent children: Don’t treat them as younger, give them the tools to achieve - July 17, 2022
- Exploring the “subtle spectrum” of autistic discovery - August 24, 2021
- Ambitious and inclusive sensory story-telling - October 29, 2020
Love the idea, love the project. Have shared on DSU FB page H x