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13th June 2018
10:19am BST
Sigma, Parkway Retail Park asset manager, manages eight retail parks across Ireland. Their hope is to make the shopping experience easier for families of children with special needs.
The retail park will be providing autism-friendly car parking spaces outside stores, availability of peaked caps to block out lights and specific tills to avoid queuing and allow an easier exit.
They will also have specially trained staff and host monthly meetings with the parents or guardians of children with autism and other sensory issues to find out if any further improvements could be made.
After the great response to Shannon Airport's sensory room, it's a huge step in the right direction for families dealing with sensory issues on a daily basis.
Some supermarkets occasionally offer special sensory shopping days but for the parents of children with autism and similar medical conditions, they're not nearly often enough.
At the launch celebrations, there will be no end of entertainment to keep both children and adults amused.
This will include a bouncy castle, a magician specialising in special needs, an ice cream van, face painting, a Lego display, music from an interactive band, a strike-a-pose performer and the Limrocker dance crew.
The event will also have an information hub where autism and speech and language therapy professionals and fellow parents will be on hand to talk to parents between 12-2pm.
Having several family members with sensory issues, I think this is a fantastic idea and I hope other counties will soon follow suit.
Autism awareness has significantly improved in the last few years, but parents looking after young children with the condition still have to deal with judgmental looks and opinions on a daily basis.
For families in Limerick though, shopping with sensory issues just got a whole lot easier, so make sure to pop down if you're in the area for this momentous occasion.Explore more on these topics:
