My little boy Bobby is almost 15 months. He was blessed with an extra chromosome and has an infectious smile that could brighten the darkest day!

Commonly, any child with Down Syndrome would demonstrate a delay in both their mental and physical development, but at different degrees based on the individual. However, with this in mind, I strongly believe that with continued encouragement, a strong support system, a suitable environment and appropriate nutrition and healthcare, success is most definitely achievable!

On this occasion, I would like to focus on improving Bobby’s physical environment as a way for him to learn and progress through stimulated play.

I have decided to test my inner creativity and have set up this JustGiving page in the hope that I can raise enough money to help create a sensory play area for Bobby in our back garden. I thought that this would be a great opportunity for him to work on the development of both his fine and gross motor skills, as well as it being a familiar social setting to interact with others through play.

It is fair to say that, Look, Listen, Touch, Smell and Taste are 5 fundamental elements of life that we often take for granted. These are the senses that we’re born with and quickly learn to adapt with as we journey through our initial development phases of life. Each of us will experience them in slightly different ways, and some will of course experience additional challenges or certain limitations to one or more sense, but we will all go through life engaging with the world largely through our senses.

But why not make the process fun and stimulating?!

There are many benefits to sensory play in any form:

** It can help builds nerve connections within the developing brain’s neural pathways, which trigger a child’s inclination for and ability in completing more complex learning tasks.

**Sensory play supports language development, cognitive growth, motor skills, problem solving skills, and social interaction.

**Sensory play aids in developing and enhancing memory functioning

**Sensory play is great for calming an anxious or frustrated child

**Sensory play helps children learn vitally important sensory attributes (hot, cold, sticky, dry, noisy etc)

**Sensory environments help keep children engaged due to the fun nature of learning through play and the curiosity and fascination of bright colours, unusual textures, sounds and objects help encourage the need to explore.

Ideas for Bobby’s sensory play area would be firstly the application of a child-friendly rubber flooring. Ideas would then be a sound area, texture and touch area, a sand pit, small water activity, mini art section and plant area. All will be made up of a combination of natural, toxic free and recyclable materials.

Any donations will be greatly appreciated, however big or small, and please feel free to include any supplier recommendations or ideas that may be useful in creating this sensory wonderland for my beautiful Bobby to grow, explore and smile even more than he already does!

Thankyouuuuuu!!!!

Mel xxx