It’s now less than a week until we ring in the New Year. Ball drops, streamers, and fireworks are all sensory experiences people seek out on New Years. But what if someone in your family has a disability impacted by sensory stimuli?
WBFO's Emyle Watkins recently spoke with Melanie Mercurio, a child life specialist at Oishei Children’s Hospital, about First Night Buffalo’s at-home kit and ways it can be adapted to create a mindful New Years experience.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript provided by a contractor and may be updated over time to be more accurate.
This is an extended cut of the interview - the same audio used on air is included in this. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Emyle Watkins: Well, Melanie, thank you so much for joining me here at WBFO.
Melanie Mercurio: Thanks for having me.
Emyle Watkins: To start, tell me a little bit about what you do at Oishei Children’s Hospital.
Melanie Mercurio: I'm a child life specialist, so I help kids and families cope with being in the hospital. We do that in a variety of ways. A lot of it's through play though. It's how kids learn, it's how they grow, it's how they work through difficult experiences, and it can be hard being in the hospital. It can be stressful, it can be scary, especially for kids who don't understand. So we work really hard to help them to understand, and if kids understand what's happening and they're working through it, they're going to better and hopefully get out of there sooner.
Emyle Watkins: What are some ways that you adapt play in order to help kids feel more comfortable with their circumstances or the situation that they're in?
Melanie Mercurio: I just try to meet every child at their level, and sometimes that is working with parents because they really know their kids best, and finding out where they're at, either emotionally or physically or depending on their developmental level, but just meeting them where they're at. And my background is in child development and psychology, so upon bringing it down to their level. So I'm not going to explain surgery to a child the way the doctors explain surgery to each other. We're going to bring it down and explain what anesthesia feels like, if it's called more of a sleep medicine and just bring it down and so that it's more accessible to the kids and their families because it can be overwhelming as a parent to be in the hospital. And when you're hearing all this medical jargon that you don't really understand, bringing it down a little bit really helps and it helps you to feel more comfortable being there and understand what's going on.
Emyle Watkins: And I know New Year's is coming up, which is an exciting night for a lot of families, but for some families with kids with disabilities, trying to adapt that night to be sensory friendly or friendly to different disabilities can sometimes be a challenge. But we're here today with the First Night Buffalo party box to discuss how you can adapt this box, just like how you would in the hospital for different kids. And this is something you use in the hospital on New Year's, correct?
Melanie Mercurio: Yes. We've had these donated the past few years, and it's fantastic because a lot of our kids, especially now it's festory season, unfortunately, they can't leave their rooms and so they're able to have their own little New Year's Eve party in the room, which is great. So on my floor, I work on a medical surgical floor and we can have anyone from birth to age 21, any developmental level, any illness really. So this really covers your bases for pretty much everybody. I have a lot of the trach vent population, the infants on my floor, so we love the light up toys for them.
It's a really good, even soothing sensory stimulation because I believe from last year that this can be a fun party light, but it also can be a little bit slower and soother soothing. So the babies really enjoy watching the lights change and things like that. Bubbles are also a big one. Bubbles are also a big one if you have kids who are feeling anxious, so if they're overstimulated, that forces you to take a deep breath. So blowing bubbles can help kids to calm down. So we use that a lot in the hospital too, actually.
Emyle Watkins: You mentioned stimulation. I know different kids react differently to stimulation. Sometimes things can be overstimulating, understimulating. How important is stimulation to a kid who might be feeling a lot of feelings?
Melanie Mercurio: For a kid feeling a lot of feelings, typically we try to scale it back a little bit, give them something that they can focus on, just one thing. So either that's bubbles or a stress ball or a light up toy. Zeroing in on that one thing to focus on can really help to return them to baseline and to help them to bring back down to where they need to be. And that could be different depending on your child. So it's whatever seems to work for your child, but feel free to try different things. Just give them a little time to adjust in between. Instantaneous changes is just going to be more overwhelming. So just take a few minutes with each item and see what they connect with and whatever works, stick with that.
Emyle Watkins: And my understanding is that the great thing about First Night Buffalo is that you can actually play and pause the free programming that's on YouTube, so it makes it very adaptable. You could leave out parts of this kit. You could play only parts of the video. Tell me a little bit about what parts of this kit to start you would omit for maybe a child with allergies.
Melanie Mercurio: Definitely the latex balloon. So the children's hospital is the latex free environment just to be safe. So that's something that you could omit, but most of them look like they're pre-packaged anyway, so that's very helpful in that. And then possibly the face paint. Also, kids who are maybe a little easily overstimulated, I would avoid face paint and putting on them just that extra sensation might be too much. But again, families know their children best. So if your child is sensory seeking, they might really enjoy it. If they're sensory avoidant, just leave that to the side and that's okay.
Emyle Watkins: Tell me a little bit about which of these objects might be best if your child has a vision disability, or has low vision, which of these objects have great textures or great experiences for them?
Melanie Mercurio: I think the poppers are fun for that. To be honest, I have a patient that I see now who is visually impaired and she would love the poppers, and I think she would really enjoy pulling on them. And the crinkling of the paper and the sound they make when they pop. The kazoos are fun. Anything with sound and anything with texture, if they don't have a latex allergy, the balloons are really fun for that. They can squish them. You don't have to blow them up super high. And they make a fun sound too, if you're bouncing them or playing with them in that way.
Emyle Watkins: Which of these activities do you think you would focus on if you had a child who was d/Deaf or hard of hearing?
Melanie Mercurio: Definitely the light-up toys in the bubbles. Honestly, the kazoos too though, because that vibrates when you hum into them. And that could be a fun sensory stimulation for a lot of kids. But the light-up toys are a big one for kids with hearing impairment.
Emyle Watkins: And which of these activities do you think would be best suited for a child who is maybe sensory seeking? Who needs a lot of stimulation?
Melanie Mercurio: A lot of these activities, actually, if I'm being honest with you, the light-up, wands, the kazoos because they vibrate, the bubbles, popping the bubbles, blowing the bubbles. Like I said, the balloons can pull on them, bounce on them, blow them up and let them go. We did that a lot as a child. The face paint, I think most of these toys would be really good for kids who are seeking sensory stimulation.
Emyle Watkins: And while a lot of these toys are good for kids who are seeking sensory stimulation, on the opposite end for a child who is sensory avoidant, what are some things you might omit from this? Or if you have multiple children, but one of them is sensory sensitive, what are maybe some things you want to take out of this box before giving it to the kids?
Melanie Mercurio: So it depends on what type of sensory stimulation they are avoiding. So if they're avoiding physical touch, then the face paint and would be one. If they're overstimulated by visual stimulation, then the lights. If noises are too much, probably the koozoo's I would leave out. So it's really adaptive to whatever your child is expressing.
Emyle Watkins: And what advice would you have for families using this kit in general?
Melanie Mercurio: Have fun. I think that it's a great kit for families in home and for you to create your own little special memories and traditions. I think it's really cool that there's an online component and you can really personalize it to your family. Like I said, it's a fun tradition to start with your kids, and I think that's something that you can do for many years to come.
Emyle Watkins: And I know a portion of the proceeds of this kit also go back to Children's Hospital, which helps support child life specialists like you.
Melanie Mercurio: Yeah. Child life specialists are... We're pretty much funded by donations, so we really, really rely on that. And we really have a really generous community here in Buffalo. We're really lucky. But all of the supplies that we use, the toys in our playrooms, our teaching supplies, arts and crafts, they're either donated by the community or purchased with donated funds. So we really appreciate the city of Buffalo because we really are lucky in having you all support us here.
Emyle Watkins: New Year's is an exciting time where a lot of adults might be excited to have their friends over to have that adult time, but I know this is billed as a very sober alcohol-free alternative to other New Year's traditions. How important is it for families to include their kids in New Year's activities and really engage with them on New Year's?
Melanie Mercurio: I think it's very important, but obviously, I work with kids and I've connected with kids pretty much my whole life. But I personally have really fond New Year's Eve tradition memories with my parents, watching the ball drop, having the same dinner every year. And that sounds silly, but it was something that I look back on now and I really enjoy. I think creating these fun memories with your kids now is something that they can look back on, and those memories they will have forever. And the memories you'll have forever too. I think it's a great way to bring everyone together and hopefully, they can carry on the tradition with their families in the future.
Emyle Watkins: Great. Well, thank you so much for joining me here today.
Melanie Mercurio: Well, of course. Thanks for having me.
