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This past Saturday July 22nd, I had the honor of co-hosting a trampoline event with the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism and Taunton, MA based Community Autism Resources at the Get Air! Trampoline Park in Swansea, MA. We had the privilege and the honor of hosting up to 70 families affected by autism allowing individuals to bounce on the trampolines and just be themselves for an hour.
When all was said and done at the conclusion of the event, Flutie donated a check of $2,500 to Community Autism Resources which will help them continue to support neurodiverse families throughout Southeastern Massachusetts.
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Now, a majority of this blog will cover three takeaways from Saturday’s event:
Loud Noises
How Trampoline Parks are great for Occupational Therapy
Getting out of your Comfort Zone
of someone who is very sensitive to loud noises and how I had to contend with the sounds of kids as someone who is sensory friendly. But, I want to start off by saying that typically when there is an event that is very sensory overloading to me, I typically tend to stay away from it. However, being the good Flutie fellow I am, I stuck in my headphones, put on Christmas music (yes, I listen to X-mas music year round, don’t judge me) and just did the best I could to cope with what I had to do.
If you know me well, you know that being around loud noises is very sensory challenging for me, even though I try to make the best of it. I mean, I travel a lot and the planes are noisy, I used to attend NASCAR races as a kid, so why was this any different? I don’t know, maybe it could be that I can tolerate a certain level of noise to an extent or something like that.
But why do I do it even though I would otherwise turn down the opportunity? Because being a Flutie Fellow allows you to connect with the families on a personal level. It’s important to remember that I was once a kid myself and I would often be noisy to those around me, so it’s kind of a juxtaposition there.
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There is also something else I took from Saturday’s event and that is that something like a trampoline park is a very self-regulatory way for neurodivergent individuals to release pent up anger and frustration that is safe and also allows them to test their balance. Trampoline parks are also a great location for occupational therapists to bring their clients to for exercises and activities that cannot be found in a regular Occupational Therapy session.
You see, when I was a kid, I had self-regulatory therapy that required me to be on a “hot dog” swing to test my balance and regulatory movements. Trampoline Parks can allow individuals to stretch their motions, test their reflexes and teach them the importance of boundaries and safety.
When I was also at Get Air! I also noticed a couple of kids on a balance beam which is another common activity that occupational therapists use in addition to being used for gymnastics.
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Finally, it’s important to also remember that many neurodivergent families do not get opportunities such as this. Many neurodivergent individuals have a reluctance to be social and that’s okay, but there are going to be times where you have to get out of the comfort zone. That’s just how life is as we all have to get out of our comfort zones at some point. The key here is to not let our fears get the better of us, especially if it’s for a good cause such as this event.
We also have a fear of having our boundaries crossed and I noticed that there were some families that didn’t want any photographs taken and we respected that. Being a storyteller, I do have to keep in the back of my mind that there are people around me that don’t want to be featured and that is a respectable professional and common courtesy that I try to maintain in my line of work.
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Still, this was overall another great event that I had the honor of participating in for the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism and I look forward to more in the future, including the Flutie 25th Anniversary Concert at Fenway Park in Boston, MA of which I will be emceeing on Thursday August 24th and an event that I will be reviewing as well when the time comes!!
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Catch you all later!!
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