Gym For Neurodivergent Students Opens In Weeksville

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — It’s been four years in the making, but finally a dream to serve kids of all needs in Brooklyn is being realized.

On Thursday at the Weeksville Gardens Children's Center in Crown Heights, the Brooklyn Kindergarten Society, along with city council members who helped finance the project, a first-of-it’s-kind sensory gym will open its doors.

A sensory gym, according to the organization’s website, is a specialized, safe space with all sorts of ways for kids — especially those who learn differently — to learn from exploring their senses. Images of the space show different textures, bean bag chairs, a hammock and an indoor tire swing for kids to explore and play on.

“It’s been a long term conversation,” said Mel Jackman, Brooklyn Kindergarten Society’s executive director, “it’s about thinking really thoughtfully and intentionally about how we support all learners.”

The space was helped funded by private donations and discretionary funds from supportive city council members, including Crown Heights’s Chi Ossé and Downtown Brooklyn’s Lincoln Restler.

While the BKS receives most of its funding from the DOE, no Education Department money was spent on the space for autistic learners.

For the first two years, children already enrolled in BKS centers will be able to use the facility, Jackman said, with hopes of expanding its use more broadly to Brooklyn kids later on.

“Developmentally, kids are learning through their senses and through play, and we need to meet kids where they are,” Jackman said.

“We are taking the onus off of the child and putting it on creating environments that are supportive,” she added.