I’ve walked by Sensory Kids many times, always with my toddler in tow, I would peak in and see so many happy children running around and playing and I really wanted to go in there and check the place out. I didn’t, because I thought Sensory Kids was predominantly for children with learning disabilities. I was being ignorant.
Sensory Kids is all about Fun and Games!! They provide a holistic approach to those children that do need help in certain areas but make the process fun. What I didn’t know is that they offer a drop off program for all young children every day.
Sensory Kids recently invited me for a visit and I am so glad they did. Sensory Kids is a magical place for ALL children!! I spent a few hours getting to know Sonia the owner and boss lady of Sensory Kids as well as her son Mariano and the rest of the Sensory Kids crew. I got to do so many fun activities too! Zip line, swing, rock climb and played so many fun games that got all my senses working. At the end of my visit I was ready for a glass of milk, a cookie and a nap.
How did Sensory Kids start? I’ve been an occupational therapist going on 39 years…which is a long time! Most people retire after 30 years of service. I was managing occupational and physical therapy for the school systems here in Jersey City and I was also the director of occupational therapy at the Medical Center, so Jersey City is my place.
(Mariano) How long have you been living in Jersey City?
Are you trying to take my job Mariano? Haha. I just want her to answer certain questions.
(Sonia) Living in Jersey City for over 30 year. I moved to Jersey City just a few short years after coming from Puerto Rico.
How long has sensory kids been open? For almost 9 years. The whole idea, I wanted to do something different for the children. I thought that they needed a more holistic approach to treatment therapy. Kids would normally go to physical therapy and then go to speech and language, and then occupational therapy…
I see the brain a little differently and the whole world is seeing the brain differently now as well… It’s all about integration… We have all these things that show you how the brain is activated when you are doing certain things. This whole new discovery of the plasticity of the brain has brought in the concept of integration into place. Now we all know, that you don’t develop an isolated spot. For a healthy child to develop they need to do everything at once…Because of that integration is why I decided to open Sensory Kids.
What are your programs? We have the drop off which we try to be inclusive for all the community. This is for all children. It’s a two-hour drop off from 10-12 and it’s open to all the children. Their might be children with some disabilities and some that don’t… we also have children that might be too young to go to daycare and they might have a little separation anxiety so we nurture them here until they are ready to go.
Parents can drop off their kids? From what age? From 17 months till about 3 years… because at around 3 everyone goes to daycare or pre school at that point. The drop off program is led by a licensed therapist. We are encouraging our licensed therapist to get educational credits in the Montessori program as well…
Then we have the social skills program which is something I started as soon as I started my private practice. I have to tell you the truth…I started it so that therapy could be less expensive for some people. But what I gained from it was so valuable in terms of the children’s social and emotional development that I continued the program… I keep the group to around 6 kids at a time.
Our social skills program is very intricate, I have a name for it actually. It’s “IISEA for Social Success”… I is for Integrating, I is for interpretations, S is for Sensation, E is for Emotions, A is for Actions… it’s integrating our interpretations, our sensations, our emotions and the actions we take. I love it, it’s what I dedicate myself too. So that is my best program… other than that we have occupational therapy, motor planning, language therapy, we have an art therapist that works with us… We try to do everything in a holistic way.
A child who has language difficulties, it really is best to work with the child in the gym while they are doing things because the language is solicited in a much easier fashion. For instance if you sit in front of a child and ask them a ton of questions they go blank…
Well it’s too much pressure! Exactly. You get it, but parents don’t always understand that.
I love your whole approach because children who come here can let go and have fun, and at the same time they don’t know that they are working on improving their skills… they leave feeling better, and as a parent, when your child is happy and thriving, there is nothing better than that. That is my biggest happiness. When a family comes here and they are upset… and they are leaving with their child that is happy. This is what I work for. We do this for the families.
Do you find there is a rise in cases of kids with learning disabilities? It’s difficult to say because now that I have this place, I see a lot of them. I think a lot of children went without being diagnosed way back and they were able to survive in the school system. Now we’ve gotten very good at identifying the problems at an early age.
Basically anybody can come here, if they want to help their child strengthen any skills? Exactly.
(Mariano) It’s not just a place for special needs, it’s a place for everyone. We just so happen to specialize in children with special needs.
That is really good to know. I remember always passing by this place and would always think “Oh that looks fun”…. There is a stigma unfortunately! The drop off program is great… our graduating class that goes on to pre school we get reports from parents saying that the teachers tell them “you where at sensory kids? no wonder they can sit in a circle” haha.
I am totally bringing Mia here!
Can you give me a tour? Sure!
This is our waiting room.
What is this contraption? This is the swing, we put different kinds of swings because it helps stimulate the balance and the movement in the inner ear.
This is the big room.
Oh Wow! So fun. This is like a Zip Line!
I want to try it. I should have worn pants though.
Mariano can you do it?
Haha wow. Ok my turn!
This is our motor room and we do different kinds of exercises like being on a balance board. We get the kids to pick up the bean bags and then throw at a target. This helps cognitive function….
So fun!! My turn!
You did a great job! Thumbs up!!
I am exhausted! So I want to know more about you. What area in Jersey City do you live? I live downtown. My husband was raised here. We raised our kids here!
Do you have a favorite Jersey City hangout spot? I love the Light Horse, I love GP’s in Hamilton Park also…
Are you guys related? (Mariano) haha she is my mother!
I thought so. Just making sure. My oldest daughter Vanessa is an occupational therapist and she works here as well. She is our Director of Education Programs and works in several charter schools, as well as here in the clinic. She brings a master’s in public health and a doctorate in education to our staff perspective– she is constantly reminding us of upstream interventions– like, what can we tell parents to include in their daily routines that will improve their children’s lives? or what can an entire class do that will help more than just the individual child we are treating…
(Mariano) Yeah it’s a family business. My sister works here and I have another sister here…
(Sonia) She helps me, but she is also developmentally disabled.
(Mariano) That is also a part of what stimulated the passion for occupational therapy for my mom.
(Sonia) Yeah, parents come in and trust me because they know I am coming from a place that I know.
Well you guys are so cute. Thank you!!
(Sonia) I want to introduce you to two of my therapists.
What are your names? Trina and Erica.
Can you tell me more about Sensory Kids? (Erica) Sensory Kids is a place that really looks at children holistically, really likes to assess and treat the whole picture for kids. We might do speech therapy, occupational therapy, social skills… but we really like to meet all the needs. We don’t look at their needs as single entity but really the whole picture to make them as functional as pragmatic as they can be in society.
(Trina) I was at a conference this weekend that talked about sensory integration, and there was a really great presentation about how it’s not just language. Language develops as children make milestones in motor processing and ability to participate in different motor activities and pretend play. Realistically we develop in an inter connected way. It really makes sense to be doing therapy in a holistic way. Just treating language is going to lead to deficits in so many other areas…
(Erica) I was working with a little boy on the letter C and we were digging through the leaves to look for different things that start with C. He started rubbing one of the leaves on his face and because I learned about the sensory integration with Sonia and Trina I knew that he needed that sensory break and I was able to transition to throw the leaves around… If I didn’t do that, I would put the leaves away and he would have a meltdown. The boy was happy and smiled.
That’s interesting. It’s a lesson for all parents… when they are with their kids and the kid wants to touch something and the parent is like stop that… Then the kid gets angry, the parent gets angry and it’s meltdown city. Then I am like, give me a bottle of wine, I am going to the bathroom and locking myself in there… haha right! All we did is start to recognize some of their sensory needs and start to dance with them a little bit, not only treat their symptoms and some of their delays but we can make them happier, comfortable.
It’s all about stopping and listening to your child. Yes exactly.
A lightbulb went off.
Any future plans? My goal is to eventually have a gym for all children because it’s about brain integration. I would also love to open a gym for adolescents and seniors. Because as we get older we lose our balance… Even adults have that issue, people who say they are clumsy or don’t have good balance. That doesn’t have to stay that way! The elderly end up losing the ability to twirl because they get dizzy, or balance on one leg… so what happens then? You are more prone to accidents.
Anything else you want people to know about Sensory Kids? I want families to know that our facility is open to typically developing children as well as children with a variety of needs– from those who just want a developmental check-in (we call it a developmental report card, so you can see based on standardized tests and clinical observation how your child measures up to same aged peers), to those who are looking for highly trained clinician-educators to introduce their young ones to a play-based school-like environment.
We work with families who are adopting, kids who need assistance with content writing or handwriting, and those who need physical activity to improve their attention and focus. We have worked successfully with families who choose not to medicate their children with ADHD symptoms and with teens and pre-teens who are looking for an edge in reading or sports. Our work is to integrate children’s brains so that they can become happy, engaged, social beings. And we LOVE what we do!
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