{"id":15575,"date":"2017-05-09T00:01:50","date_gmt":"2017-05-09T04:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=15575"},"modified":"2025-05-21T11:13:03","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T15:13:03","slug":"transforming-sensory-storytime-lemons-into-sensory-kit-lemonade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/transforming-sensory-storytime-lemons-into-sensory-kit-lemonade\/","title":{"rendered":"Transforming Sensory Storytime Lemons into Sensory Kit Lemonade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In November 2014, my assistant director asked me if I\u2019d ever heard of a special needs storytime. I responded, perhaps overenthusiastically, with the notes and links I had been gathering for 6 months.<\/p>\n<p>We decided we wanted to start a Sensory Storytime at our largest branch.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We knew we had families with children on the spectrum in our community; some came to the library, some didn\u2019t.<\/li>\n<li>We read all the resources we could get our hands on (including these excellent resources <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/beyond-sensory-storytime-at-alsc14\/\">here<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alastore.ala.org\/detail.aspx?ID=10722\">here<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/literacious.com\/programs\/sensory-friendly-storytimes\/\">here<\/a>).<\/li>\n<li>We asked some of our key donors to help buy sensory toys as a part of our annual end-of-year appeal.<\/li>\n<li>We observed a sensory storytime at a library on the other side of Michigan in January.<\/li>\n<li>That spring, we steadily cultivated relationships with (semi) nearby parent support groups, local therapy clinics, the local university\u2019s collaborative autism center, county public health, and teachers who worked in the special needs classrooms, all of whom agreed to spread the word.<\/li>\n<li>In September 2015, we held our first Sensory Storytime and held 1 every month after that.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The first couple of months, average attendance was 1 family. That didn\u2019t change. We tried altering the time. Didn\u2019t help. Two of our youth librarians attended an adaptive umbrella workshop, implementing new ideas in storytime. We altered the name to Sensory Story Group, so families didn\u2019t mistake it for a &#8220;young children only&#8221; storytime. We filmed a video, getting \u201cactors\u201d from patrons in the library that day, which showed the program and key places in the library, so families could prepare for the event and build expectations.<\/p>\n<p><center><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PZfoiV9gx3g\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>\u00a0Nothing helped. We continued to see a different family every month, in addition to the one faithful family who attended regularly.<\/p>\n<p>I know it sounds like we made a lot of changes, but these were made slowly over the course of a year and a half and on the advice of our community partners. We decided to take a hard look at what we had learned so far:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>marketing wasn\u2019t the issue&#8211;we reached everyone based on the turnover<\/li>\n<li>the event itself wasn\u2019t the issue\u2014surveys were extremely positive, and the time or name didn\u2019t matter.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These families just couldn\u2019t attend regularly, because their schedules were always changing and\/or their child wasn\u2019t having a good day. They didn\u2019t need a program once a month. After much reflection and discussion, we made the (painful) decision to end our Sensory Story Group. But we still wanted to serve our families who do regularly check out items from the hold shelf.\u00a0 And we have all of the sensory toys, carefully selected\u2026<\/p>\n<p><center><\/center>We turned our toys into Sensory Kits: 2 rocking see-saw boards (to be checked out individually), 4 totes with pop tubes, Thera-bands\u2122, foam puzzles, lacing shapes, sensory shapes and a parenting book of family activities, and 1 tote of foot\/hand tactile discs. We introduced play kits to our collection last June, so our acquisitions and circulation staff knew how to process these kits. \u00a0We put the Sensory Kits into circulation 5 days ago and 3 of them are already checked out.<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-15575 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-large'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/transforming-sensory-storytime-lemons-into-sensory-kit-lemonade\/img_20170412_160014\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"384\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/IMG_20170412_160014-650x390.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"Photo of items from a Sensory Kit\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/IMG_20170412_160014-650x390.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/IMG_20170412_160014-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/IMG_20170412_160014-768x461.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/IMG_20170412_160014-833x500.jpg 833w, https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/IMG_20170412_160014-150x90.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/transforming-sensory-storytime-lemons-into-sensory-kit-lemonade\/img_20170412_161431\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"384\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/IMG_20170412_161431-650x390.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"Photo of items in a Sensory Tactile Disc Kit\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/IMG_20170412_161431-650x390.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/IMG_20170412_161431-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/IMG_20170412_161431-768x461.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/IMG_20170412_161431-833x500.jpg 833w, https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/IMG_20170412_161431-150x90.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/transforming-sensory-storytime-lemons-into-sensory-kit-lemonade\/rocking-see-saw\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/rocking-see-saw-650x366.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"photo of a rocking see saw\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/rocking-see-saw-650x366.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/rocking-see-saw-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/rocking-see-saw-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/rocking-see-saw-889x500.jpg 889w, https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/rocking-see-saw-160x90.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>We had to be brave enough to closely examine a program, admit it was unsuccessful, and end it. That\u2019s really hard to do, especially when you\u2019re talking about a hot topic, one of national importance, <strong>and <\/strong>donor funded. But we were able to continue serving these families, just in a different way, which may end up a better way for our families. We made lemonade out of lemons and hope our story empowers you to do the same.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">(all photos courtesy of guest blogger)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">*************************************************************************************<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-15581 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Kristel_web-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of Kristel Sexton, guest blogger\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/>Our guest blogger today is Kristel Sexton. Kristel is a Youth Services librarian at the Ypsilanti District Library, where last year she was Project Director for the first hands-on science exhibit YDL has ever hosted, Discover Tech: How Engineers Make a World of Difference. She is one of the co-authors of a LSTA grant YDL was recently awarded to pilot an early literacy texting program for Washtenaw County and is very excited to introduce this service to her patrons.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Please note that as a guest post, the views expressed here do not represent the official position of ALA or ALSC.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><i>If you\u2019d like to write a guest post for the ALSC Blog, please contact Mary Voors, ALSC Blog manager, at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:alscblog@gmail.com\">alscblog@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In November 2014, my assistant director asked me if I\u2019d ever heard of a special needs storytime. I responded, perhaps overenthusiastically, with the notes and links I had been gathering for 6 months. We decided we wanted to start a Sensory Storytime at our largest branch. We knew we had families with children on the spectrum in our community; some came to the library, some didn\u2019t. We read all the resources we could get our hands on (including these excellent resources here, here, and here). We asked some of our key donors to help buy sensory toys as a part of our annual end-of-year appeal. We observed a sensory storytime at a library on the other side of Michigan in January. That spring, we steadily cultivated relationships with (semi) nearby parent support groups, local therapy clinics, the local university\u2019s collaborative autism center, county public health, and teachers who worked in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[134,38,207,136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-blogger","category-programming-ideas","category-special-needs-awareness","category-storytime-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}