VISUAL IMPAIRMENT INFORMATION & RESOURCES
WonderBaby.org is dedicated to helping parents of young children with visual impairments as well as children with multiple disabilities. Here you’ll find a database of articles written by parents who want to share with others what they’ve learned about playing with and teaching a blind child, as well as links to meaningful resources and ways to connect with other families.
Positive Eye is a leading provider of educational consultancy. Specialising in training for professionals. Specifically, those working with children and young people with vision impairment. Our courses and products are widely used throughout the UK, Europe and worldwide.
Paths to Literacy is a website which has been created as a result of a joint project between Perkins School for the Blind and Texas School for the Visually Impaired. They have combined their resources and expertise to help assist educators and families in their quest to provide literacy experiences for children who are blind or visually impaired .
We are Guide Dogs. And we’re here to help people with sight loss live the life they choose. Children and adults. Friends and family. Whoever you are, our expert staff, volunteers and life-changing dogs are here to help you.
Visit the Guide Dogs website to find activities from their experts to help your child with a vision impairment learn important skills through play for their early years development.
SEND YOUTUBE RESOURCES
Sensory Sound creates brand new sensory songs specialising in helping children with mild to profound learning difficulties, or in EYFS to access their education through messy play and music.
Visit the Jensory YouTube channel for lots of fabulous sensory sensory ideas and music session for SEND learners and the Early Years
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvzmFMTrgauEaERHI8p6PMw/featured
Soundabout is a music education charity. Through their music they work to ‘unlock the potential’ of people living with learning disabilities and special needs
Come and join us here on the Singing Hands YouTube channel to learn more about how to sign with Makaton for users of all ages! We have everything from nursery rhymes, stories and games through to pop songs for older learners! Here you’ll find clips from our range of DVDs, weekly #MakatonMonday signing clips and footage from live shows and educational concerts plus footage of some of our little (and not-so-little friends) who enjoy signing with Makaton too.
Big Top Music is an accessible online resources for our families and friends to have their own musical adventures at home.
Jessie’s Fund was established as a registered charity in 1995 and helps children with serious illness, complex needs, and communication difficulties through the therapeutic use of music.
A Music Physio event, bringing carers and children with complex learning differences together to explore body awareness. Written by Tim Godwin in collaboration with Physiotherapist Carolyn Thwaites.
Tim Goodwin’s Physibods sessions have now moved from YouTube. To access the sessions, please email office@thethrift.co.uk, where you will receive a password to access the sessions via Vimeo.
send training, online resources & learning
Positive About Autism is a training company providing Workshops on autism. Our training is active, visual and fun and reflects our positive style and positive philosophy
Joanna Grace is a Sensory Engagement and Inclusion Specialist, author, trainer, and Founder of The Sensory Projects .The Sensory Project runs on the idea that with the right knowledge and a little creativity, inexpensive items can become effective tools for inclusion. In all her work Jo is seeking to contribute to a world where people are understood in spite of their differences.
Hirstwood training are a growing, dynamic and enthusiastic team of expert consultants, whose mission is to share the very best sensory approaches to breaking down barriers to learning for all pupils with SEND
Click on the link below to visit the web site of Ian Bean, a consultant and trainer specialising in the use of ICT and assistive technology to support the learning and communication needs of people of all ages with severe and complex additional needs.
The Story Massage Programme offers a fun and fully inclusive way of combining the creativity of story, song and rhyme with the benefits of positive touch. Everyone can join in, whatever age or ability. It is enjoyed by children and adults of all ages and abilities in a wide variety of settings.
We have a popular online training course and easy to access resources to encourage you to develop the programme in your school, home or wider community. Please take a look at the blog for more information, original story ideas and inspiring accounts from all around the world.
The services available through the Gina Davies Autism Centre have been developed and formed over several years by renowned autism expert, Gina Davies.
Gina is a qualified Speech and Language Therapist who turned her passion for communication development into practical and joyful intervention strategies for parents and professionals dealing with autism. She has worked with hundreds of autistic children in schools, nurseries and residential settings, and directly with parents, carers and families.
Sensory Spectacle creates immersive learning experiences to educate about and form a better awareness of Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). Our workshops and installations give you an opportunity of experiencing first-hand how a SPD might impact your life allowing for greater awareness and understanding of auditory, visual, tactile, smell, taste, proprioceptive and vestibular difficulties.
Simply Sensory was founded in 2018 by Julie Cowpe-Stephens and Helen Dillon. Between us we have many years’ experience and expertise working with children and young adults with complex learning, sensory and physical disabilities both within a SEN school and mainstream settings. We believe every child deserves a chance to thrive and be the very best they can be. We are passionate about keeping children at the centre of everything we do. Our aim is to provide training and support to share our enthusiasm and knowledge for sensory approaches to learning to practitioners, parents and carers to enable children and young adults needs to be met, to encourage engagement and interaction and give strategies to support inclusion.
Rhyming Multisensory Stories – Step by step, fully resourced, multisensory stories and poems for Parents, Guardians, Childminders, Early Years Educators, Teachers, HLTA’s, TA’s, Speech Therapists, Play Therapists, Support Workers, Activity Coordinators, Storytellers, Librarians and anyone with an interest in exploring storytelling through the senses in a fun and engaging way.
Tacpac is a sensory communication resource using touch and music. Tacpac helps people with sensory impairment, developmental delay, complex learning difficulties, tactile defensiveness, and limited or pre verbal levels of communication.
Northern Ireland Curriculum Thematic Units for PMLD. Practical resources to support developing a sensory curriculum for learners (aged 3-19)
We have developed these thematic units to support you in delivering a vibrant and motivating curriculum for learners aged 3–19 with profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD). These units are aligned with the Northern Ireland Curriculum.
You can use them to enhance the learning experiences of this unique group of learners and deliver all aspects of the curriculum at a level appropriate to your learners’ cognitive ability.
To help your learners to make relevant connections, we have integrated the primary and post-primary Areas of Learning into these units. The units help embed information technology, along with communication and assistive technologies, to enrich your learners’ experiences
.http://www.nicurriculum.org.uk/curriculum_microsite/SEN_PMLD_thematic_units
InnerSense
InnerSense – Formed in 2006, InnerSense is a registered charity which for many years provided multi-sensory creative arts workshops for people with a wide range of learning disabilities across the spectrum, including moderate, severe, profound and multiple disability. Many clients had additional sensory and physical impairments and/or challenging behaviour making interacting and communicating very difficult.
Our artist team has over 20 years experience working in arts and disability. In our workshops, people who rarely speak were inspired to sing, those who rarely move, to dance and those who were trapped in their own worlds, to explore another imaginative world where communication becomes a possibility.
The InnerSense App provides a unique resource of multisensory theatre ideas and practical methods for engaging people of all ages and abilities. You can also find detailed ways of working with different props and resources, and how to run themed activities and workshops on our Resources page
NAC Wellbeing – NAC is a registered Community Interest Company (CIC), operating on a not-for-profit basis from the UK and accessible from anywhere in the world where there is internet connection. We are dedicated to the emotional and mental well-being of people with severe and profound intellectual disabilities. Our vision is for the emotional and mental health needs of children and adults with severe and profound intellectual disabilities to be recognised and cared for using evidence and neuroscience-based practices and approaches. What we do to work towards our vision is evidence-based and driven by our values
SEND unlocked is a new charity. Our Aim, to provide parents and carers of children and adults with specific needs, as well as the schools and services that support them, a pathway through the maze of bureaucracy surrounding access to SEND support.
SEND unlocked’s mission is to deliver the innovative user friendly SEND Directory, providing information, advice and guidance for accessing the wide range of support services available to them and their families.
FACEBOOK & INSTAGRAM
Supporting PMLD Teaching and Learning is a Facebook page for everyone involved in the lives of people with PMLD to share ideas, resources, concerns and stories of success
Vinnies Cheap Switch Toys is a Facebook page that has been set up by a father, whose son ‘Vinnie’ has quadriplegic cerebral palsy. As parents they discovered that Vinnie was not able to push little buttons on everyday day toys, but loved them, so they have created this page to sell their own switch accessible toys to help others
Making SENse provides various stimulating, sensory activities to encourage and support creative communication for adults with a range of disabilities.
We provide a unique service whereby we offer a range of sensory based activities including sensory art; table top gardening; sensory cooking; communication through touch and music plus more.The provision is suitable for young adults with complex and profound disabilities; equally many of the activities are appropriate for individuals living with dementia
SEN Teaching Ideas & Resources is a Facebook page for all those supporting children and young people with SEN. It is a place of support and a place to share resources and ideas.
Cortical Vision Impairment (CVI) – DIY Support Tools This Facebook page has been created to share homemade support tools for children and adults with Cortical Vision Impairment.
Special Needs Equipment – Buy / Sell / Swap This group is purely for buying & selling used special needs equipment & related items by parents or carers of children and young adults with disabilities in the UK.
Bee Sensory – Follow Becky on Instagram an SEN teacher who shares some amazing sensory ideas.
BRILLIANT BOOKS
FLO LONGHORN SENSORY BOOKS – Flo Longhorn has made all of her amazing & inspiring books FREE to download.
https://sites.google.com/view/flolonghornsensorybooksfreedow/home
Sensory Stories for Children & Teens with Special Educational Needs (A Practical Guide) By Joanna Grace
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sensory-Stories-Children-Special-Educational
Sensory-Being for Sensory Beings: Creating Entrancing Sensory Experiences By Joanna Grace
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sensory-Being-Sensory-Beings-Entrancing-Experiences
Once Upon a Touch – Story Massage for Children By Mary Atkinson & Sandra Hooper
An enjoyable and interactive way of sharing the benefits and safe and appropriate use of positive touch with all children, this book will be of interest to parents and carers, bodyworkers, teachers and other school staff, care workers and arts therapists
Building Bridges Through Sensory Integration: Therapy for Children with Autism and Other Pervasive Developmental Disorders By Paula Aquilla, Ellen Yack, Shirley Sutton & Carol Kranowitz
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Building-Bridges-Through-Sensory-Integration
Multiple Multisensory Rooms: Myth Busting the Magic By Joanna Grace
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Multiple-Multisensory-Rooms-Busting-Magic
Communication information & resources
Today over 100,000 children and adults use Makaton symbols and signs, either as their main method of communication or as a way to support speech.
Makaton has been shown to be useful for all sorts of people including those who struggle with understanding concepts, those who have poor literacy skills, including grammatical knowledge, and those with English as an Additional Language. By using Makaton, children and adults can take a more active part in life, because communication and language are the key to everything we do and learn. Visit the Makaton to find out more .
Visit Widgit Online to create, print, share and translate symbol materials online
Create visual, communication and learning supports in your web browser using over 18,000 Widgit Symbols and 100’s of easy-to-use templates. No installation or updating required
CHARities & SUPPORT
PMLD LINK was established to make a difference to the lives of children and adults with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD). People with PMLD have profound intellectual and multiple disabilities, very severe communication problems, often extreme physical and/or sensory disabilities, and complex health needs.
Their needs are frequently overlooked by more general support organisations for people with learning disabilities. PMLD LINK maintains a clear focus on this small and often hard to reach group. Since 2007 PMLD LINK has been a registered ‘not for profit’ charity and its affairs are managed by volunteer trustees who have in-depth knowledge and are relatives of people with PMLD and/or are professionals with backgrounds in relevant health, education or social care services
Mencap is the leading voice of learning disability. Everything we do is about valuing and supporting people with a learning disability, and their families and carers.
Our vision is a world where people with a learning disability are valued equally, listened to and included.
SENSORY THEATRE & ARTS
Collar & Cuffs Co was established in 2016 as a not-for-profit sensory musical theatre company. Our work focuses on supporting the mental health, wellbeing and emotional development of children in the early years and people with complex needs.
Head2Head Sensory Theatre is a registered charity dedicated to the Special Needs’ Community. We are passionate about making theatre accessible to all and understand that families who have a child with a disability face many barriers. We raise awareness, share knowledge and develop new ways to make this happen. We include opportunities for self-development and learning by offering work experience to students transitioning from education.!
Oily Cart aims to reimagine theatre for young audiences to make it more inclusive. We create sensory theatre that can be enjoyed by children who are very young and those who are labelled as having complex needs including those with profound and multiple disabilities, with an autistic spectrum condition, and those who are deafblind and multi-sensory impaired
ADAPTIVE CLOTHING
SpecialKids.Company offer a range of adaptive clothing and accessories designed for children with special needs. We are passionate about creating sensory clothing and accessories such as wheelchair covers and chewies, that can enhance your child’s social skills by addressing their unique needs, and without sacrificing their personal style and self expression. Offering a wide range of sizes our specialist bodysuits, bibs, vests, swimwear and other garments are suitable for 2 to 16 year olds.
We understand that special needs children require clothing and specialist accessories with additional support. Our garments and accessories are made from materials that offer comfort and are designed specifically to make them suitable for children with autism, down’s syndrome and many other specialist requirements. Shop from our range of adaptive clothing which includes our popular tube access garments, special needs bibs, seamless socks as well as our accessories with a range of aids such as chewies, wheelchair covers, bedding and much more.
Billy Footwear – It is clear that the world is ready for greater inclusion in fashion. Everybody is unique and we all want to express ourselves and feel confident. BILLY Footwear is proud to be a part of this movement.
SENSORY SHOPPING
The Sensory Play Shop is an online sensory store, where you can buy lots of wonderful, value for money sensory recourses.
The Sensory Play Shop has been set up by a parent of a child with Autism & Sensory Processing Difficulties. To read her story please click on the following link https://sensoryplayshop.co.uk/pages/about
Sensory Direct are experts in Sensory Toys & Clothing. Weighted Jackets, Blankets, Balls + More! MHRA Certified Chewbuddy Chew Toys & Sensory Clothing to Calm & Relieve Anxiety & Stress. Trusted School Supplier. SEN & Autism Products. Great Customer Service
Sensory Direct was set up by a parent after their child was diagnosed with Autism. To read his story please click on the following link
https://www.sensorydirect.com/our-story
https://www.sensorydirect.com/
Visit the sensory section of the Glow Company to view a fabulous range of sensory lights, toys, sensory glow and UV products and sensory room equipment
ASSIsTIVE TECHNOLOGY
Inclusive Technology is a leading supplier of software and hardware for people with special needs. We dedicate ourselves to providing pioneering assistive technology to our customers worldwide. From ground breaking eye gaze and communication technology through to switch access, mounting solutions and environmental control, we provide a full range of innovative products to enable our customers to communicate learn and play
DAD IN A SHED – The most affordable supplier of AAC & SEN equipment!