For children with cerebral palsy and other disabilities which affect body movement and muscle co-ordination and their families it can be hard to find facilities that cater to the needs of the family.
At the Easter Pop Up in Bristol, we chatted to Adam’s mum and dad when they came with Adam and his younger sister to see what they had to say about their sessions.
It’s great to hear that Adam found so much at Gympanzees that he enjoyed. The Active Sensory room was certainly a favourite at Easter with lots of children and the iSandbox was a hit! Sounds like he had fun on the trampoline too; and there was plenty to keep his sister happy as well.
The staff are very understanding of children’s needs and they are friendly and happy to play with the children which makes it a very nice experience.
With only 6 weeks until we open again for our Summer Pop Up we can’t wait to meet more children like Adam and hope they will enjoy it as much as he did.
Mum: Adam was diagnosed as having malformation of the brain when he was born and it affects his speech, and mobility and his development, so he’s far behind his peers in terms of his age.
Dad: It’s quite difficult to find a nice variety of activities for children with disabilities. It’s almost impossible if you have more than one child to find something which provides the same level of facilities that Gympanzees does; in fact it just doesn’t happen. They just don’t exist.
Mum: I found it when I brought both the kids here, and I’m playing with Adam I don’t have to worry. His sister can explore, there’s enough people here that’s it’s busy but it’s not overwhelming, not so many people that you have worry about keeping your eye on them. If you got to a park in the summer, can be very busy there a lot of children running around and it’s hard to keep your eye on more than one child. Adam is fairly stationary, so I know where he is, but Cora can run of quickly. The staff very understanding of children’s needs and friendly and they’re happy to play with the children which makes it a very nice experience
Dad: There are so many things here that Adam likes, I took him on the trampoline bouncing around like crazy and he loved that. He loves the sensory room, he loves the ISandbox with the volcanoes and rivers. Somewhere like Gympanzees where you have bit of everything is perfect, because he can just go from play thing to play thing in different rooms and he loves it all. It’s brilliant.
Mum: We struggle to find things to do on the weekends. It’s nice to have this in the holidays but also your day to day life, somewhere you can go on a rainy day. ‘Oh let’s go to Gympanzees”.
Dad: Yes – it would be amazing.
