Today at ten am, the HoCo graduation season officially begins with the graduation ceremony for students at Cedar Lane. The school serves students aged three through twenty one who experience multiple disabilities, as well as students with autism. Today’s post was inspired by their special day.
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Got a minute? Enjoy a trip to Laura’s Place playground in Blandair Park.
Autism in the Park, April 2024 (1 min 48 seconds)
If you watch the full video you’ll see more than kids playing on a playground. You’ll also see a variety of special activities and experiences from great big bubbles to investigating fire trucks. In addition, you’ll notice resources for families, as well. Autism in the Park is presented through the collaboration of the Autism Society of Maryland and the Howard County Recreation and Parks Department.
It’s a joyful minute or so if you have the time. It reminded me how great that playground is and made me grateful for all the imagination and hard work that go into that event for autistic children and their families.
The Columbia Association announced this week that their aquatics department has earned Certified Autism Center™ designation. You can learn more about what that means at the CA website. The basics:
After a years-long effort, the Columbia Association Aquatics Department (CA) has achieved Certified Autism Center™ (CAC) designation. This certification is awarded by the International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards (IBCCES), which ensures that autistic individuals and their families receive high-quality care and support. All 23 of CA’s outdoor pools are certified.
This recognition signifies CA’s commitment to building inclusive spaces and programs for autistic and sensory-sensitive individuals and their families. The team completed a comprehensive training and certification process to better understand and welcome these community members. Additionally, IBCCES conducted an onsite review to provide the department with valuable insights on further enhancing their facilities and implementing detailed sensory guides as part of the certification process.
I was happy to see that CA saw this as a need and has spent the time and money to do something about it. I hope this will contribute to better experiences at the pool for neurodivergent community members.
The Howard County Library system has added some new programming at Miller and East Columbia branches in response to community need. It’s called Beyond Words.
Beyond Words is a vibrant and inclusive monthly class designed to spark joy and ignite the imagination of participants with developmental and intellectual disabilities.
Learn more at the HCLS blog: Beyond Words
Here’s what caught my eye in the article by Peg Prentice, Teen Instructor & Research Specialist at HCLS Miller Branch:
In order to do this right, I knew that I needed to get some input from the community as to what they would like to see in terms of monthly classes, so I reached out to a few of our “regular” customers and caregivers for ideas. Together, we came up with the idea to have five stations that participants could rotate through – Motor Skills, Arts & Crafts, Movement, Cognitive Skills, and a Sensory station.
The activities would change each month according to a theme and would be differentiated and/or have appropriate accommodations based on varying skill level or needs. For instance, arts and crafts supplies include markers, acrylic paint pens, crayons, egg-shaped palm crayons, a variety of different brush handle sizes, etc., not only to accommodate creative choice but also to ensure that folks with limited motor ability can still participate.
I loved to see how Ms. Prentice responded to a need and worked collaboratively with community members to create meaningful programming. Caregivers may often hear “we don’t have programs like that” when searching for positive experiences for those with developmental and intellectual disabilities. I hope this program will thrive and perhaps inspire other local institutions to offer similar accessible programming in the community.
The motto of the Cedar Lane School is LIFE: Learning Is For Everyone. That got me thinking.
It truly makes a difference if we keep learning about folks who are not like we are and experience the world far differently than we do. Our culture doesn’t foster that kind of ongoing learning. We are sorted into different classes, different schools, different life paths. I wonder what our community would be like if we placed high value on teaching everyone what inclusion in action really looks like?
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