The Gurgly Magic of a Bubble Tube

The Gurgly Magic of Bubble Tubes - What’s your favourite bubble tube story?

A (very) long time ago I was privileged to be given the task of setting up a specialist nursery class for children with profound and complex learning difficulties. I look back with amazement at that time as at the start I had little idea of what I was doing. I quickly learnt!

I was lucky enough to obtain a grant from the RNIB to set up a Sensory Room, and my favourite piece of equipment in that resource was an Interactive Bubble Tube. It was the multi-sensory nature of the bubble tube that appealed to me, and that engaged many of the children – light, colour, vibration, moving bubbles and a bubbly noise, and easily controlled by the children using switches.

A memorable activity from those days was a sensory drama. The sensory room became a woodland environment for ‘A Walk in The Woods’. The bubble tube was a gurgling stream, complete with a

Web site building

Our web site is changing by the hour. We are working on adding more than 300 products at least 150 unique to Spacekraft . There are lots of products to use in your Sensory Room from the bigger bubble tubes to hand held sensory products that are great to use in the classroom or in any sensory room for all ages from children to adults. We will be also lots of new blogs so watch out for interesting snippets about the history of Sensory Rooms and how they have developed down the years.

The update of the site has been a big challenge for us moving to a new super fast platform that supports video clips across mobile devices better.

We genuinely want the site to have good information and be easy to navigate so bear with us a little longer.

Fiddle and Chew

FIDDLE AND CHEW!

 It seems to me to be a miracle that most of us can cope with the sensory complexities of everyday life and the complex myriad of information that comes to us through our senses. Not only the 5 senses of touch, sight, smell, sound and taste but also our proprioceptive (body awareness) sense that tells our brain where our body and limbs are positioned in space and our vestibular (movement) sense that gives the brain information about our body’s movement.

Think of the last time you were in a crowded, busy space and consider how much sensory information you had to deal with in that situation. It might be your journey to work, or at a sports event, or even at the supermarket.

Not everyone has a sensory system that can cope with the sensory saturation that is part and parcel of everyday life.

Do you have a child in your family or in your class who may fit some or all of the following traits?

I’M IN CHARGE!

I’M IN CHARGE!

Isn’t it a pleasure to remember those magic moments when a child or young person you have been working with begins to understand cause and effect, begins to understand that if they do something then something else will happen? I remember one little boy, Robert, laughing every time he knocked over  a pile of bricks built up on the tray of his supportive seating (it was a challenge for him as he had cerebral palsy that severely restricted his controlled movements, especially when excited), then showing gleeful anticipation through his facial expression and his vocal utterances as his very patient supporting adult rebuilt the tower again and again …

This is a hugely important step in learning and in developing cognitive development – ‘if I do something then something else will happen’. Translated into learning situations this can be as seemingly simple as realising that ‘if I move on this space blanket it will make a lovely crinkly sound