Two-year-old Ari Williams is testing out the new motor-sensory friendly playground at the Jack & Jill Children’s Center on West Broward Boulevard.
“It’s sand!” she yells, and scoops tiny cups of sand into smaller containers.
She then jumps to the water tables where she throws her hands in and can splash around.
Motor-sensory playgrounds are starting to pop up more and more across South Florida. Now there's even a sensory gym for kids in Palm Beach Gardens.
Unlike traditional playgrounds where children climb and go down slides, in a motor-sensory playground they have to pinch, build and pour things to better develop their fine motor skills.
The new Jack & Jill playground came from the local professional development group Leadership Broward. The current class raised $13,000 and got the playground built in about seven months.
Class member Jonathan Lewis said his group picked motor-sensory playgrounds because they promote open-ended play.
“Research that we looked at said it’s good to give them opportunities to have open-ended play, where there’s not necessarily a defined thing,” he said.
That research, some of which comes from a 2013 study, suggests motor-sensory play also has benefits for children with autism spectrum disorders.
"It engages the creative side of their brain," Jonathan Lewis of Leadership Broward Class 36 said.
Jack & Jill’s executive director, Heather Siskind, said the center takes care of lower-income children who may not get this kind of stimulation at home if parents are working.
“This gives them the ability to really develop those things that they need to help them grow and run around and be able to play with sand and water,” Siskind said.
The center has been running in Fort Lauderdale since 1942, but it has evolved over the years to offer family strengthening and financial programs to help parents break the cycle of poverty, while also opening a private school.
The center has been in its current building since 2001, and this is the first time the playground for infants and toddlers has been renovated.
So far, Ari seems to like it.
“I’m almost done; I’m almost done!” she said to her teacher while she grabbed some more sand.
