Sensory books for the Passport to Play study children

A personalised sensory book was made for each of the five children in the Passport to Play study. The activities in the book were based on what the children appeared to enjoy, according to what was observed and what their families and school participants said. An artist (Dave Bain http://davebain.com/) was commissioned to draw representations of the children as photographs would be too likely to compromise confidentiality. The real name of the study child is used in their own book, but pseudonyms are used on the other pages. There was an inevitable compromise in some cases regarding the activities as it was not always practical to include a preferred activity within a book! The books have been created for a number of reasons:

 As an end of project ‘thank you’ to the children

 To fulfil a promise made when recruiting the families to the study that their child would be included in a unique book

 To loosely send out messages from the study about anticipation, sensory experiences, counting, that the children have unique personalities and that individualising is important  As a way of ‘giving something back’ to the families, who gave considerable amounts of time to the study

Pages 1 and 2

The necklace is attached by Velcro and can be removed from the book. The page is ‘sparkly’ and the beads feel nice to play with. For some of the children, the beads are slightly different, according to the recipient’s gender and preferences. The beads were bought from Claire’s Accessories (http://www.claires.co.uk/) and the fabric and sparkly tape from John Lewis (http://www.johnlewis.com/).

Pages 3 and 4 The bells are sewn on to a ‘bracelet’ that can be removed from the book and put around the child’s wrist or other place. The bells, buttons and ribbon were bought in a local craft shop. The musical stickers were from Amazon (www.amazon.co.uk).

Pages 5 and 6

In the corner of the page is a ‘spinner’ that has a holographic surface that sparkles in the light. It is attached to the book by Velcro and can be removed to be placed on a surface such as a wheelchair tray. The spinner was from Hawkins Bazaar (http://www.hawkin.com/) and the sparkly, spongy swirls were made from a material found in Creativity, Bristol (http://www.creativitycraft.com/).

Pages 7 and 8 Slipped inside the furry page is a ‘monkey drum’ that can be taken out and swizzled to make a clattery sound. Some of the drums are noisier, depending on the preferences of the recipient. The drum, above was bought from Amazon, as above and some more traditional ones were purchased from the Sensory Toy Warehouse (http://www.sensorytoywarehouse.com/). The fur fabric was purchased from John Lewis, as above

Pages 9 and 10

This is the page that relates to the recipient. In this case, ‘Megan’ likes things that rustle. The cheerleader-type streamers have a short handle. It can be removed from the net pocket, which was included as Megan likes poking her fingers through things. The streamers were purchased from the Sensory toy Warehouse, as above and the netting from John Lewis. The silver duct tape, a very versatile and useful material, was purchased from Creativity, as above.

Pages 11 and 12

The final pages show small pictures of each of the study children and there is a small ‘finger torch’ on the facing page that can be removed and placed on the child or caregiver’s finger. They were purchased from Hawkins Bazaar, as above. The ‘shine message derives from a quote from the study:

‘Because playfulness is a state of mind, and although it is easier to develop if a child has appropriate physical skills, it does still exist in alert watchfulness, sense of humour / fun, interest etc. It is evident when children and young people with PMLD 'shine'. Sometimes it can't always be seen but it can be felt - a meeting of minds, a shared understanding.’

Back page On the back page, a ‘Play Passport’ is inserted into a plastic sleeve. This can be used to provide information about the child’s playfulness and how it can be encouraged. It is available to download from www.debbywatson.co.uk .