The Minnesota Twins have unveiled the Grapefruit League’s first ever, in-ballpark sensory room at Lee Health Sports Complex. WCCO's Jason DeRusha gets a tour of the unique and special space at a baseball game.
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00:00Come along with me as we take you inside the very first Grapefruit League Spring Training Sensory Room.
00:07It's right here at Hammond Stadium. The Minnesota Twins got it done.
00:14Oh, look at this.
00:15How quiet is this once you get in here?
00:17Unbelievable. It's hard to believe we're at a baseball stadium, right?
00:20You'd never know it, would you?
00:22Tell me how this works, if a family feels a need to come in and get a little respite.
00:28So I think for us, really what we tried to do is create a space that was multifunctional for kids,
00:32so regardless of what their need is, they can find what they need to calm themselves, regulate here.
00:38Baseball games, loud, it's hot, you know, that can get overwhelming very quickly.
00:43So you can hear the white noise, so that kind of dulls the extra noises as soon as that door is shut.
00:48It's so loud out there, I don't hear a thing.
00:51And that's part of the white noise machine.
00:53I think the different sensory things, so we have different sensory systems.
00:56All those senses can get overwhelmed, or one of them.
00:58So really trying to figure out what do you need to calm yourself.
01:01So, you know, walking on the sensory tiles, it gives them that input, the visual, the rocking chairs, the lighting.
01:07That marble wall is fantastic, you've got to do that.
01:10We have this whole thing here, which each of the bins has different items in it,
01:15so, you know, if you want to play with one of the poppets, you can hang out with that and do that.
01:20We have some headphones in here too, so if it is too loud,
01:23there are headphones for kids to kind of mitigate that noise, which can get very overwhelming.
01:28A lot of our kids like this too, they call it the porcupine type.
01:32Porcupine, that's not really what they are, but that's what we call them.
01:36So the lighting stuff, all the textures.
01:39And there are people in here that can kind of also help kind of guide the experience.
01:43So we have clinicians who are available.
01:45We'll have a couple of clinicians from our team here from Family Initiative,
01:48helping families and helping them understand.
01:51There's a quiet area back here too.
01:53Oh, wow.
01:54Yes.
01:55Look at this.
01:56Again, so if it's too overwhelming out there, there's a space they can come in, relax.
02:01It's soothing and calming, so really finding what you need.
02:05And as long as they need to, they can come in and out, they can hang out here for a while, whatever they need.
02:09And those clinicians are also going to help educate the families.
02:12So if families are like, I don't know how to help my child,
02:14our team from Family Initiative will be here to talk to them and outside of games, they can connect also.
02:20It's extraordinary.
02:21We love it.
02:22We're thrilled.
02:23One of my favorite places in the county, I think, right now.
02:26Tell me your name.
02:27Anjali.
02:28How do you spell it?
02:29A-N-J-A-L-I-V-A-N-D-R-I-E.
02:32And your organization is called?
02:34Co-founder of Family Initiative.
02:35Family Initiative.
02:36Awesome.
02:37Thanks, Anjali.
02:38Thank you so much.