Wednesday 18th September 2024
Dear all involved with the South Hook Community Fund,
We are delighted to share our progress with you, since SNAP Specialist Play received a generous donation of £4341.00 from South Hook LNG Community Fund (Round 3) in 2023. I would like to share just how impactful the purchase of the ‘Belonging Bags’ has been for our organisation and the children we care for.
A diagnosis impacting on their child’s development can be devastating for the parents and carers. SNAP supports pre-school children (<3s) with additional and complex learning needs, to access professional support and ensure that, through play, children can reach their developmental milestones, transitioning into settings where they can thrive. We provide practical, life-changing and creative services, empowering children to have a ‘voice’ and express their needs, all through the power of play.
Throughout the year, SNAP Specialist Play has made significant progress in our mission to provide comprehensive support to families with children facing additional and complex needs. One of the most transformative changes we’ve implemented is expanding our services from term-time only to year-round support. While our initial goal was to increase the number of children served to 50, we made a strategic decision to pivot our approach. Instead of focusing solely on expanding our reach, we prioritised extending support to families for a longer period during the critical early intervention phase, because it is what our families requested.
We introduced a new ‘Stay, Play and Learn’ groups. During these sessions, we are empowering families to better support their child. These sessions are led by families, who are encouraged to share their concerns, and, following their feedback, we invite health professionals along to offer advice and support. Topics have ranged from social skills and sleep issues to babble therapy and feeding complications. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. What’s particularly noteworthy is that 22 of these children, along with their siblings, have actively participated in our Stay and Play sessions, creating a community of support for families, who otherwise feel very isolated.
Our commitment to offering holiday support through Stay, Play and Learn has ensured continuity of engagement during the school holidays for all the family. This holistic approach to support has not only strengthened our bonds with families but has also facilitated smoother transitions between settings and improved outcomes for children.
In addition to these achievements, we re-registered with Care Inspectorate Wales, successfully reducing our joining age from 18 months to 15 months, thereby ensuring earlier access to vital support for families in need. we are thrilled to share that we did not have to introduce a lengthy waiting list to access our services.
Our ‘Sign & Rhyme’ sessions have continued to be a hit. These weekly virtual training sessions in ‘Signalong’ have provided a fun and engaging way for families to enhance their children’s communication skills and families, including extended family members, have shared wonderful feedback about the improvements they’ve seen.
For example, we had the privilege of assisting an armed forces family who recently moved into the area with their 9-month-old baby who is registered blind. Through Sign & Rhyme sessions, Mum not only had an additional network of support, but also learned to use body signs to support the visual impairment of the baby.
In another heartening example, a mother who works in childcare, has been able to extend the learning from Sign & Rhyme into her workplace. By upskilling her own workforce, she has made her childcare setting more inclusive and supportive of children with additional needs. These stories highlight the tangible impact our programs have on families, empowering them with skills and support to navigate their unique circumstances.
It was lovely to welcome your team during your visit to our setting in March and at this point we were at the beginning of the journey in putting together the items needed to make up the three different types of bags. We shared the wonderful news that a little boy – Finlay Walters, a previous child accessing snap provision with a diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy, had recently set up his own printing company and had agreed to support the design of the logo onto the bags and some of the resources.
With the support from the South Hook LNG fund, we have been able to provide further support by producing the “Sign & Rhyme” Bags. Each bag consists of a list of the objects, the words to each song associated with the objects provided ,QR codes linked to a short film of staff signing and singing the rhyme and QR codes linked to some very brave parents (and some children) who have filmed themselves signing and singing a chosen rhyme. We extended the virtual support and offered sessions within the community using our local library which was also a success and they have agreed that this can continue as a community link for future families and possibly the general public who would like to learn more about Signing. Finnlay Walters also agreed to be present and support the presentation of the bags to each of our families.
Feedback of using the bags has been excellent. Families continue to use the bag to communicate, some children like to use the bag to select a song, hide and sing to themselves , another family will take the bag with them on trips away from the home to occupy their child and another family have taken the bag on a long haul flight to America with the plan to teach others on the plane how to use sign if their child is to become distressed as they have already seen the impact that the bag and singing helps to support him to be calm and regulated. It has been of benefit to a little girl registered blind, however she is able to manipulate the objects to make independent choices and her parents have introduced this as a daily activity where her sibling can also be involved with the signing session to support her sister.
Our core service, the 1:1 support sessions, remains central to our work. Our skilled team has conducted these sessions with great care, observing and assessing the children to identify their emerging needs. Collaborating with external agencies such as speech therapists, physiotherapists, and occupational therapists, we’ve been able to provide comprehensive support. Between October – March, we welcomed 20 new children into these sessions. In addition to our regular programs, we managed to organise some beautiful summer outings. These outings were tailored to meet the diverse sensory and physical needs of our children, ensuring everyone had a fantastic time and included a Woodland Walk, National play day, beach trips and a trip to the “Wonkey Donkey Farm”. The sign & Rhyme bags were also used during these trips out and the Well-being Bags and the Cynefin Bags were presented to the families who were transitioning out of the service so they were used as a little graduation ceremony.
The well-being bags have been used within the home and all families have been happy with the contents that the children absolutely loved. All families have used most of the products and have appreciated the hygiene products as they are often too expensive to purchase. Parents are already seeing progress in teeth brushing routines. The photo books are a memory keepsake of all of the wonderful activities the children took part in during their time at SNAP. Issac now has a favourite pair of Pyjamas 😊
The favourite items from the Cynefin Bags have been the snap crocodile and the light up spinners. The objects of reference items used within the bag are of similar to what the children use during snap. Thes objects help to support transitions between activities and for non-verbal children to be able to make a choice. The objects can now be utilised within the home environment which enhances continuity between all environments that the children have access to.
Here are some pictures of some of the items in use.
Within the budget, we also requested the circle time and branded mats, however we have been awaiting building maintenance work to be completed within the playrooms, therefore the purchase of these two orders have been on standby until the work has been carried out and completed. Please have a cheeky look at one of the QR codes showing an example of what Luca and his mum have been learning through our Sign & Rhyme sessions 😊
Thank you once again for your generous support. It has been a wonderful project and has brought immense joy to many families. We are deeply grateful for your partnership and very much hope to continue together.
With heartfelt thanks,
Cindy Jenkins
General Manager, SNAP Specialist Playgroup
