Kate's Place

A little Kate’s Place Perth update 🌱
As many of you are aware, my little man started pre primary this year…this unfortunately coincided with his father and I separating…so best laid plans for his transition and smooth introduction to full time school went out the window 🤦‍♀️
This has meant that the Kate’s Place classes have been put on hold for the time being so I am available to manage shortened days, reduced schedule etc with him.
We are both doing fairly well, but as you can understand, even more so than usual, it is a day by day situation at the moment.
I will keep everyone updated on how we’re going later in the term and hopefully I will be able to have classes back up for term 2.
Meantime, I’m hoping in the second half of this term I will be able to commence 1:1 visits with those who have contacted me…I will be in touch.
Thanks to my current clients for your understanding and support…please stay in touch and let me know how your cherubs are going…I miss seeing their faces each week.
And please stay in touch with each other - the tribe is not gone, it’s just temporarily online whilst this member jumps some hurdles 💕

So wonderful to see inclusivity in action at Lollipops Bayswater today. Playcentres can be hell for some of our babes - even though they would love to climb and slide as much as many of their neurotypical peers, many just can’t go because of the sensory overwhelm. I was so thrilled yesterday to see Lollipops have made strides towards making their centre available to all! They have converted one of their party rooms (which would inevitably have made them money) into a free sensory room for kiddos who need a break from the noise/bright colours/movement/activity etc etc etc. You just let the staff know you will need access to the sensory room during your visit and they’ll give you a little card with the door PIN code for the day.
I went in with my little guy after 2 minutes of being there - he’d excitedly run the bounce castle but there were lots of older kids being quite boisterous and he just froze. I was able to get his attention enough to get him to come down the slide to me and then took him straight in. We were lucky enough to be the only ones in there. Once past the ‘freeze’ stage he tends to throw things when dysregulated so he immediately went for the fur balls but was able to redirect him into the stretchy body sock with me and I modeled how I could push against the gentle pressure of the Lycra…he also liked that it was darker when his head was inside but he could still see out and not feel trapped. We then did some tummy rolling on the peanut ball He was then comfortable to explore the room a little and went in the ikea chair and under the table tent..he also had a look at yeh fish bubble tube. After all of this (about 10 minutes) he was regulated enough to tell me he was ready to go play again now.
He then happily played (with me closely watching for signs of dysregulation) for an hour and a half without issue.
Now, the room certainly isn’t ‘perfect’ (it is still very noisey, so bringing ear defenders for a sound sensitive child would be necessary. Whilst they have thoughtfully tried to cover the fluorescent roof lights with lovely dimming rainbow paper - it is still quite bright and the art work remaining on the wall from its pre ious life as a party room is very stimulating) but the fact that it has been thoughtfully considered and efforts have been made, within the space available to make it a comfortable place to retreat - in my book earns them 5 stars
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
The equipment in the room was not individually expensive - predominantly Kmart items…so it is absolutely possible for businesses to create spaces like this on a limited budget…as a starting point, even as simply as having a small tent in a quiet corner with some of these items inside if they don’t have a room to spare.
Thanks Lollipops Bayswater for creating this space so more kids are able to enjoy your centre 💕
Note - Kate’s Place Perth has no affiliation with Lollipops, but I was very grateful to see they had one of our flyers displayed in their sensory room. Thank you Lollipops.

So thrilled to be at an in person training with Dr. Ross Greene today.
Take a look at this petition about having his collaborative and proactive solutions approach brought into Australian schools

https://chng.it/N6HSqYdzcL