If your kid is like mine, it’s a mixed bag. One day you have this magical 24 hours where you can go anywhere, do anything, and heck—maybe even sneak in an errand. The next day? It feels like a two week stretch of not being able to get anything done because nothing can bring him down from whatever it is he is feeling. All plans must be canceled because today has now turned into an “inside day.” We don’t like inside days too much because we just got over winter—and outside is so much more fun. Enter our list of tried and true sensory sensitive friendly activities for kids who want to do kid things, but need a little extra space, a little extra quiet, and maybe mama needs a really clear exit strategy before she shows up?
Sensory Sensitive Movies: AMC has officially begun hosting movies for sensitive kids. Check out the hashtag #AMCSensoryFriendly as proof parents show up, and hang out, and let the littles be free in the theater for this special viewing. Regal has also announced special viewing for autistic and sensory sensitive little ones.
Trust me on this one: Jump Street. We take the 20+ minute drive down to Brentwood early in the day. That, in of itself, is a risk. We have a 90% success rate. There is a toddler area with three trampoline “isles” and also a huge blow up slide and bounce house. We think this place works for a few reasons. It’s $4. So if, in fact, there is a total meltdown, it didn’t break the bank to see if we could get some activity in that day. There are areas to move between, and they are a large enough distance to cool down. For example, the bathroom is far enough away for a little “walk,” and the section between the trampoline and bounce section make it feel like different activities so it’s easy to go between the two if one does get crowded. It’s never crowded in the morning. Also, there is no crazy, loud music.
Sprocket Lego Club: It’s free and in East Nashville. We have only gone once, but we definitely plan to go back. It’s located in their offices—which are a large room fillllllled with all the Lego parts your little could dream of ever. Our son went a full 30 minutes building. That’s a big deal for us in a group environment.
Located in Franklin, there is an autism friendly place for children’s hair cuts. Our local salon worked out great for us—because our son liked who was doing it. Our stylist has since left, and we have been on a hunt, so we’ll be trying this new place out soon. They seem to have a lot of info and training on working with these sensitive kiddos.
Nashville Children’s Theatre has specific sensory friendly dates listed here. They do an incredible job of offering a social story two weeks before showtime. This is such a service to kids who would love theater if they just had that prep before hand.
The Nashville Zoo has also put together a social story and it can be found here.
I hope this list helps you to discover something new and try it out successfully! We are about two weeks out from our formal autism test and will be giving a recap of what happened, how it went, and what to expect. We are also about two weeks out from our wait to join the Regional Intervention Program. If you want to follow along our journey in discovering if our child is autistic, start here. Feel free to keep the conversation going in the comments—we are each other’s best resource after all!
