WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAW) – Not all children have the ability to tell other kids what they’re thinking. Oak Island Park in Wausau is adding a new tool to help kids with communication troubles.
On most summer days, you’ll find kids playing in public parks with their friends, but what if you couldn’t tell those friends what you wanted to do with them? For some kids, this is their reality.
For children with autism, like Makenna Simkowski, it can be hard to enjoy the park with other kids.
“So, she’s not nonverbal, but it’s really hard for some of her peers to understand her, so this’ll be awesome to be able to play with other kids,” Makenna’s mom, Katrina Simkowski, said.
Oak Island Park is looking to help kids like Makenna with their new communication board. It’s meant for children to show their peers and other adults what they would like to do or to tell them how they’re feeling.
“To kind of be like, ‘I want to climb, or I want to go on the slide.’ And if she can’t get it out verbally, she can show a peer,” Katrina explained.
Katrina helped get the project funded with the support of the Channing’s Joy Foundation. However, the Marathon County Parks and Rec Department had to approve the sign and make sure everything looked good before it was added.
“We were ready to install it and we realized there was a typo, so we had to have the sign remade,” Marathon County Parks and Rec Director Jamie Polley said. “Once we got the sign that was all proofed and good to go, we got it installed within a week or so.”
Polley hopes the communication board will be a success, though it’s up in the air if Parks and Rec will add a communication board to other parks in the county.
“We wanted to see it on site, and then, how it’s used and stuff. If it’s something we feel we want to add to more playgrounds, I definitely think that we’re open to that,” Polley added.
“Words and verbal communication isn’t the only way, or the only functional communication form there is,” Katrina said. “I think this will be a big help in showing people that you can have a relationship without having to speak. I would love to have it in almost every park if we could.”
The Parks Department encourages anyone to contact them with ideas on how to improve parks in Marathon County.
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