Around £600 worth of equipment and toys has been bought for youngsters at Walsall’s Child Development Centre (CDC).
Walsall Healthcare’s Well Wishers charity has funded the new items, which include jigsaws and picture based toys, for service users at the CDC in Shelfield, near Walsall, as existing items are wearing out.
Around 2,500 children are registered with the service, which deals with around 1,400 referrals a year.
The equipment is mostly for pre-school age (under fives) plus a few items for slightly older children, ranging from those who can’t communicate to those who have a limited ability to talk, to those who have not developed a high level of social skills or emotions.
They are used to help children with learning difficulties, as well as those who are deaf, autistic and those struggling with pronunciation or sentence structure.
Head of Speech and Language Therapy Linda Bromwich said: “Georgie Westley (Fundraising Manager) contacted us asking if there were any bits of equipment we needed, so we put a list together.
“We’re very grateful to her and the charity for what they have done because we don’t have a great budget for equipment so it’s wonderful for the team.
“The CDC together with its sensory room has a brilliant relationship with the charity and benefitted from incredible support.
“A lot of the children we see are quite physical so the toys and equipment take quite a battering and they are very well used, so the chance to replace items was welcome.
“Children have spent a lot of time at home in lockdown and not all of them have a range of toys to play with, so it’s really good for them to have the opportunity to play with these.
“Jigsaws help them develop attention and anything picture-based provides triggers. For example, children who can’t talk use pictures to help them until their words come, or to show us what they like or don’t like for a whole range of age groups and levels of difficulty.”
Georgie said: “We were delighted to be able to help the CDC with this donation.
“We know this equipment will be of real benefit and will be put to fantastic use.”