Dayspring Community Connectors: Great Play

Imagine!’s Dayspring department’s Community Calendar Activities (CCAs) introduce families with young children who have developmental disabilities or delays to places in our community that offer great activities and opportunities for children to meet their goals through fun and play. All activities encourage motor, sensory, social-emotional, cognitive, and speech-language development.

Each location has activities that are age and developmentally appropriate. Activities are centered around play, because play is the primary vehicle for a child’s mental and physical growth. Play has a vital role in cognitive, speech-language, physical, emotional and social development.

Much of young children’s learning takes place when they direct their own play. Learning occurs as children touch, manipulate, experiment and talk about things, while interacting with people who facilitate without directing. During play, children are provided with sensory experiences and opportunities to move. Young children need to climb, run, jump and challenge themselves motorically. Children are natural explorers and instinctively touch, taste, hear, and observe the world around them.

In order to create these meaningful community activities, Imagine! needs the support of many local organizations. So today I’d like to highlight one community partner that does so much to connect young children with developmental delays and disabilities and their families with the community: Great Play.

Great Play makes developing skills fun! Their award-winning, high-energy programs for kids develop motor, sports, and social skills, setting the stage for lifelong confidence and physical fitness, in a one-of-a-kind Interactive Gym.

Great Play has been part of Dayspring’s CCAs for several years, and offers them reduced entrance fees. The staff is very flexible and does a great job working with the Dayspring kids and families.

Thank you, Great Play, for supporting Imagine!, Dayspring, and your community!

Sensory Overload

So much of the world we live in is not natural. We are surrounded by noises that Mother Nature never intended.

Can't see the video? Click here.

Artificial lights block out the stars at night.
  Can't see the video? Click here.

And from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep we are bombarded with information – from the radio, the television, from our computers and smart devices. It can be overwhelming at times.

Many of us come up with ways to cope and escape the unnaturalness of our surroundings. Personally, I seek solace in the mountains around Boulder – nothing invigorates me more than a run or a ride outdoors, away from cars and phones and computers.

But not all of us are in the position to get away every now and then. Many individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) don’t have the resources for a weekend escape. Imagine how that must feel – the sensory and information overload we all face must be 1,000 times more challenging, and yet, the people who accept services from Imagine! and service providers like us every day accept that challenge and face it down in hundreds of ways both big and small.

We often hear people talk about the growing inequality of incomes in this country. I also think there is a growing inequality in the opportunity for people to engage fully with a society that is becoming ever more information and technology driven. I continue to advocate for the use of technology when it comes to serving individuals with I/DD, but readily acknowledge that it isn’t as simple as providing a new device and leaving it at that. That doesn’t work for any of us, let alone someone who has a cognitive disability.

This post isn’t about offering any kind of easy solution. I’m simply making an observation. But maybe the people who accept services from us deserve a little more respect then they sometimes get for their ability to adapt and adjust to a world that is moving forward faster than a lot of us, regardless of our ability or disability, can keep up with.

Then again, what do I know?

Technology Tuesday

This week’s Technology Tuesday post is another edition of “AppAbility” - where Imagine!’s Technology Architect Alex Andrews provides short instructional videos and reviews of apps that may be beneficial for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities or related conditions. Today's episode: a demonstration of Go Talk NOW.

Can’t see the video? Click here.

Good News Friday!

Imagine!’s Out & About department and Assisted Cycling Tours are hosting a Bike-A-Thon tomorrow, Saturday, August 8, from 11:30AM-2:30PM, outside of Imagine!’s Coal Creek Office, 1665 Coal Creek Dr.

You are invited to join them for a day of music, food, and of course, cycling. It will be fun for the whole family! You may bring your personal bikes, or ride one of the many that will be available for borrowing during the event.

Please RSVP to Megan McKean at mmckean@imaginecolorado.org or 303-457-5700. A  $10 donation is suggested.

Check out the video below for more info. Hope to see you there!

Can’t see the video? Click here.

Dayspring Community Connectors: Dizzy Family Fun Center

Imagine!’s Dayspring department’s Community Calendar Activities (CCAs) introduce families with young children who have developmental disabilities or delays to places in our community that offer great activities and opportunities for children to meet their goals through fun and play. All activities encourage motor, sensory, social-emotional, cognitive, and speech-language development.

Each location has activities that are age and developmentally appropriate. Activities are centered around play, because play is the primary vehicle for a child’s mental and physical growth. Play has a vital role in cognitive, speech-language, physical, emotional and social development.

Much of young children’s learning takes place when they direct their own play. Learning occurs as children touch, manipulate, experiment and talk about things, while interacting with people who facilitate without directing. During play, children are provided with sensory experiences and opportunities to move. Young children need to climb, run, jump and challenge themselves motorically. Children are natural explorers and instinctively touch, taste, hear, and observe the world around them.

In order to create these meaningful community activities, Imagine! needs the support of many local organizations. So today I’d like to highlight one community partner that does so much to connect young children with developmental delays and disabilities and their families with the community: Dizzy Family Fun Center.

Dizzy Family Fun Center has opened its doors to groups of Dayspring kids and their families monthly since 2014. They even “comped” entrance fees on Dayspring’s first visit to say “thank you” for the work they do.

Well, I’d like to return the thanks. Thank you, Dizzy Family Fun Center, for supporting Imagine!, Dayspring, and your community!

Technology Tuesday

On several “Technology Tuesday” posts over the past year and a half, we have shared the progress of participants in Imagine! CORE/Labor Source’s (CLS) KGNU Radio Classes taught by Kelly Faus (like here and here). Today, we’d like to share another success from some of the students: an original video created for an original composition entitled "Freedom of Movement," written and performed by a few of these talented CLS musicians – Bruce, Frank, Mandy, and Scott. Enjoy!

Can’t see the video? Click here.

Out & About With . . . City of Lafayette’s Peer Empowerment Program

During the last week of June, Imagine!’s Out & About Therapeutic Recreation (TR) team was asked to partner with the City of Lafayette, Colorado’s Peer Empowerment Program. The program is for middle and high school students who are looking to advance their leadership skills during the summer break from school. It is funded by the Lafayette Public Tax Levy, as part of an effort to increase the number of positive programs available to youths in the community. The program also involves collaboration with the University of Colorado Boulder Public Achievement Program, headed by Elaina Verveer.

Out & About’s Therapeutic Recreation Specialists were excited to partner with the program and led an afternoon of teambuilding and group initiatives. “As is always the case in Therapeutic Recreation, we wanted the afternoon to include games that got everyone involved, but also really wanted the kids to have a chance to practice their problem solving, communication and leadership skills,” said Lisa Bargatze. Lisa and Beth Gessert, along with their interns, Maggie Evans and Kenneth Wing, led several initiatives including Giant-Wizard-Elf (an active version of Paper-Rock-Scissors), and a Tower Building “contest” that really highlighted the students’ creativity and teamwork skills. Beth said, “It was fun to challenge ourselves to plan activities and work with a different population than we typically do at Out & About. We got to stretch our TR muscles!”