Special Mom’s blog

My son’s program PA Connecting Communities has a Home called Connecting Me Home in our Community. People like my son can spend some time in the Home learning skills like cooking, laundry or just chill themselves out. A cozy home in the community for special people to get used to a Home away from Home.

We have just been there twice but yesterday evening we had to drop something and that is when the coordinator emailed me there was a craft that we can do there.

My boy is a bull in a China Shop anywhere he enters and would run into kitchen searching for food. It is usually hard to manage him so as a back up I have my husband with me in new places.

When we entered we had another of his friend with an aide watching a movie. My boy was super hyper but they had a wonderful sensory craft for him to work on. We started working on the crafts and that is when I remembered about an email that I received about a relaxation room in the house that had just been put in place.

So we went upstairs and settled ourselves with a twenty minute timer for my son to check out the room. The dimmed lights, white noise, sensory toys, a bean bag and swivel hanging chair were what he had to use to calm himself so his body can regulate itself. He settled down on the floor with boxes of sensory toys as the timer ticked. My husband who had a long day at work had himself seated on the bean bag and when the timer rang he said “wow this is a nice place”. Yes indeed it was.

The sensory room or the relaxation room is not the solution for the problem on hand but it greatly helps our mind to regulate itself. It would have been better if my boy had spent some time in the room and then gone to make the craft. He would not have acted silly and would have been more concentrated.

We have a sensory set up in our basement, something similar and we were truly excited that my boy has another home with a similar set up.

There is not one tablet or a therapy to help autism but multitude and for us a sensory room has always helped my boy. So really grateful to PA Comnecting Communities for coming up with this great idea.

I am sorry I do not have any pictures or videos since those really do not capture the essence of the place. It needs to be experienced 😊.