Sensory yard a hit with special needs students and parents in Mandeville

Pontchartrain Elementary School students were on hand to test the newly opened KidSense Playground in Mandeville on Friday while parents and teachers participated in a ribbon cutting ceremony.

Nine year-old Louie Knights rocked back and forth on a springy wave rider and then sat atop the multi-textured climbing tunnel in Pontchartrain Elementary School's new sensory yard, which is geared toward special needs students.

It's all part of his twice-daily "sensory diet," which gives him the physical stimulation he needs to return to his classroom relaxed and ready to learn, said Roxanne Newman, Knights' mother.

"He loves it," she said of the yard, which gives Louie, who is autistic, "more ability to run out here and get more energy out."

The yard, which parents and school officials say is the first of its kind in the United States, was built thanks to more than $120,000 in donations and in-kind contributions. It was completed earlier this month, and now joins a smaller sensory room, which was set up a year ago in one of the Mandeville school's old supply rooms.

LeAnne Cantrell, a Pontchartrain mother who lead the fundraising effort, said she wanted to create a space where special needs kids could attend to their sensory needs on a larger scale.

"The bigger the better when it comes to motor sensory integration," she said.

Experts say the new yard gives easily distracted special-needs students more room to work through their anxieties and focus on learning. Studies have shown that physical contact or activity might help children who have autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder process information better.

Those children are often hypersensitive to things such as bright light or an itchy T-shirt tag, and they can become distracted in the classroom, where they might throw tantrums or otherwise act out.

Sensory integration therapy "allows them to get rid of a little extra energy, come back and regroup," said Tom Heier, a physical education teacher who works with the 50 or so students who use the equipment as part of their therapy.

Parents, school and local officials and business leaders celebrated the new yard, located in a shared courtyard between Pontchartrain and Tchefuncte Middle School, in a dedication ceremony on Friday.

"This helps not only autistic children but other children on the same playground," said Mandeville Mayor Eddie Price.

Pontchartrain Principal Kathleen Wiseman said the yard is "amazing."

"The children really are so, so active that it's hard for them to focus so we just bring them out here," she said.

While the adults raved, a special needs child ran his hands along the yard's multi-textured sensory wall, complete with a Braille alphabet and glued-on seashells and marbles. Other kids climbed a 6-foot-tall boulder and navigated across a balance beam. Newly-planted flowers and shrubbery surrounded the space.

Stacy Autin, another Pontchartrain mom, said the yard has given her autistic son, Jack, an incentive in school. When he gets distracted during a lesson, his teacher will show Jack a picture of the yard, which is often used as a reward for finishing his school work.

"He will breeze through it," she said.