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Fales’s daughter has autism-related “Rett Syndrome,” so if she’s going to be able to play, she needs a ramp big enough for her wheelchair. She needs a special swing set. So do many other children.
“There is so much equipment out there to give children like this a chance to feel like a regular kid,” said Fales, a North Bergen native who also has twin girls. “However, society really doesn’t care and just turns away.”
The condition afflicting her daughter is the “most physically disabling of the autism spectrum disorders,” according to the Rett Syndrome Research Trust. “Primarily affecting little girls, Rett often strikes just after they have learned to walk and say a few words, and begins to drag their development backward.
“This debilitating syndrome includes symptoms seen in many other severe neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders.”
Universal PlaygroundUniversal playgrounds have sprung up here and there, including in Wayne, where one was built with funds raised by a foundation that helps the families of fallen police officers.
Still, Fales is amazed that two of the larger, better known parks in North Jersey — James J. Braddock Park in North Bergen and Van Saun Park in Paramus — don’t have adapted playgrounds.
“These parks are especially big and more than able to have a playground like this,” she said.
The benefits go beyond simply being able to have a place to play: Universal parks help disabled kids grow and interract with able-bodied kids outside of home and school.
Perhaps if readers spoke or wrote to their local representatives, or if someone stepped up and donated directly to the cause — cutting through the red tape, as it were (For example: Shane’s Inspiration, a West Coast non-profit, has built more than two dozen universal playgrounds throughout Southern California).
With warmer weather on the way, the younger ones will want to be outside. How sweet it would be if they genuinely had a fun place to go, Fales said.
They “deserve to be able to play like the other kids,” she said, “but nobody wants to help them.”
For more information, go to Rett Syndrome Research Trust, based in Trumbull, CT.
Or you can contact: Roxanne Fales on Facebook.
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