During the nice weather, our students enjoy our outside accessible playground, which contains a ramped treehouse structure with slides and wheelchair and regular swings.  A soft cushioning surface (instead of asphalt) in many areas allows for students to be more confident with their walking.  Recently, several areas of the playground were updated and retrofitted with accessible benches, exploration tables, and interactive displays. Staff makes use of an open area to engage students in story-telling, nature studies, and functional academic tasks, among other activities.

Two large, weather-resistant picture communication displays will be installed soon.

The identical displays will be mounted at different heights to accommodate students who are ambulatory and those in wheelchairs.  They will enable students who are non-speaking and those who have limited functional speech or language skills to communicate more effectively with adults and peers while at the playground.  The picture symbols represent both frequently-used and playground-specific vocabulary to facilitate students’ understanding and use of language, social skills, and functional communication.  The communication displays will be wide enough to allow two or three communication partners to converse at a time, and will support our goals of providing consistent access to communication for all of our students at all times and giving every child a voice.