Come inside the Twins "Sensory Suite" at their spring training home, the first of it's kind

WCCO-AM / 830 WCCO

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.

Transcript

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.

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