There’s a new therapeutic playground for children with special needs at Upstate Medical University’s Golisano Children’s Pavilion in Syracuse. Staff members will be able to incorporate play into the routine of kids with intellectual and development disabilities being treated at the inpatient facility.
What is now a colorful world of slides, climbing structures, and spinning seats used to be just a basketball court. Henry Roane, executive director of the Golisano Center for Special Needs and the Biobehavioral Health Unit, said the playground is an extension of the treatment the children receive.
"It gives them a place to play," said Roane. "It gives them a place to be a kid. It gives them a place to come outside and have fun. They do really hard therapy in the program. And for them to be able to come out here, sometimes do some therapy outside, but also to just come out here and play, practice socialization skills, and really just enjoy the activities that they get to do out here."
Roane said it’s perfect for kids who need sensory seeking behavior, like repetitive spinning.
Upstate Medical University has opened a new therapeutic playground for children at the Golisano Children’s Pavilion in Syracuse.
"We designed these chairs that are specifically for that, so a child could sit in there and they could spin themselves," he said. "It's the same thing with the Jeep you see over there. They can sit in the Jeep and kind of rock back and forth. There's also some bouncy things like that little thing that looks like a hammock over there and just really designed to let the children display the kinds of behaviors that they find self-soothing or sensory seeking, but to be able to do so in a playground environment."
Roane said it also offers children a chance for socialization, which is an important part of their therapy.
"So you kind of want to think about it like, instead of the child sort of being in their own world, they're able to engage in the behaviors that they like, but in the way that brings other people into that as well," he said.
The Biobehavioral Health Unit, the only one of its kind in New York, has a waitlist, and it provides in-patient treatment for children with a variety of disorders, including autism. It includes patients with severe destructive behaviors, with a goal of stabilizing them and letting them return home. For Roane, adding this kind of play to what can be a formal sterile setting is priceless.
"I supervise the staff and the staff are the ones who might get hit or injured and to see them come out here and play with a child and they're having fun together and the staff member and the child are just engaged in playful activity, that to me is the best part of being out here," he said.
