Making all kids feel included

Playground at Eisenhower Field 4 promotes inclusive play

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What seems like an ordinary playground, located in Eisenhower Park’s Field 4, filled with slides, swings and seesaws is anything but. The Let All The Children Play park and playground was designed to accommodate disabled children by creating an accessible play atmosphere with inclusive recreational programs.

The playground, opened in 2012 as a partnership with Nassau County, features equipment that is wheelchair-friendly, with spacious entrance ramps, as well as a lever-adjustable spinning carousel and swings with protective harnesses. The grounds are full of sound and sensory amenities for children with developmental challenges, and also have wide pathways and a soft, spongy surface.

But the park’s true mission is to make all kids feel included. Year-round programs there provide children the opportunity to experience play with their able-bodied peers. “I think it’s a great opportunity to have programs like this in the playgrounds,” said Millie Gittleman, LATCP’s summer program director. “We are working on other projects by building more playgrounds such as this one.”

Those programs include sports clinics in partnership with Hofstra and Adelphi universities, to educate both disabled and able-bodied children about ways they can play together safely. Hofstra also hosts an annual wheelchair volleyball and basketball clinic there that allows children to be involved in activities with their peers. In the spring, special education classes from Garden City and Rockville Centre schools visited the park on field trips, Gittleman said, to learn how the playground encourages inclusive play.

Parents who frequent the park say its welcoming nature has put them at ease, knowing their child is safe and having fun under careful supervision. “The park is free and quiet, yet a great place to socialize,” said Roxanne, a local East Meadow parent who asked the Herald not to print her last name. “They have great summer entertainment that I always bring my child to.”

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