Free webinar: Creating sensory-friendly places for children and young people

Welcome to Contact’s free webinar for professionals – we hope you find the content useful and can implement some of the tactics straight away in your setting!

If you’ve not heard of Contact before, we’re a UK charity with nearly 50 years’ experience helping families of children with disabilities and additional needs.

For any queries or if you need assistance, get in touch with our team on [email protected]. We’re here to help!

Your webinar recording

The video has been split into chapters to help you locate specific content that’s of interest to you. Chapter names can be seen by hovering your mouse over the video’s progress bar, or via the links below:

Part 1: Introductions – including Contact’s support services for families with disabled children

Part 2Co-producing sensory-friendly environments for children and young people in acute health care

Part 3What it means to have sensory processing needs and how it feels when your senses overload you

Part 4: Strategies for preventing and dealing with sensory overload/overwhelm

Part 5Simple tactics you can implement straight away in your setting (your proprioception toolbox)

Part 6How to help a child recognise when they are beginning to experience sensory overload

Please note that the contents in this presentation are the intellectual property of Contact and shouldn’t be shared. See our T&Cs for more information.

Meet the panel

Belle Berroyer

Belle is an early years professional who lives in Wales with her autistic son. For the past 18 years, her focal point and study has been on sensory processing sensitivity in people of all ages with autism and ADHD.

Belle has run workshops for parents and carers, and workplaces across Wales. In 2023, she published her first book – ‘Learning the language of autism through the senses’.

Claire Stirland

Claire qualified as an occupational therapist in 2005 and has over 20 years of experience working in the NHS with adults and children with sensory processing difficulties.

In 2017 she founded Sensory Worx, a leading sensory and specialist therapy service, delivering tailored solutions for developmental, social and learning needs. Claire has extensive experience working with people with complex behavioural and social experiences, and consistently achieves excellent outcomes with families and schools.

Mary Mulvey-Oates

Mary is Early Years and Participatory Research Manager at Contact. Her projects with Contact include developing sensory-friendly environments with Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, and evaluating the Autism in Schools Accelerator in the North East.

About Contact

We are a national pan-disability charity with nearly 50 years’ experience helping families with disabled children. More than 540,000 families turn to us every year for our expert and trusted information, advice and support

We are also dedicated to helping practitioners acquire the skills and resources they need to deliver the best possible services for families.

Find out more about our training and consultancy for practitioners.

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