About Us
Senstional Kids is an award-winning social enterprise
Today, 1 in 4 children in Ireland has a special educational need. This means that there are 420,000 children in Ireland who have additional needs such as those with autism, down syndrome, adhd, dyslexia, dyspraxia and many other developmental delays. Identifying and treating these difficulties at a young age will allow a child to truly realise their potential.
Accessible & Affordable Intervention Services
Sensational Kids is an award-winning social enterprise, that has already changed the lives of over 9,000 children, saving their families over €2 million in therapy fees. We provide vital front-line therapeutic supports for children with additional needs, ensuring that these children in need have access to vital supports when and where they need them.
With 70,000 children on waiting lists for speech therapy & occupational therapy our services are a lifeline for families whose children would otherwise be waiting 3-4 years to access services and would lose the opportunity for timely intervention and better outcomes for their children.
Take a Look at what we do in our short videos
Sensational Kids is a high impact not-for-profit organisation delivering life-changing, accessible and affordable, timely interventions to 9,000+ children of all abilities over the last 10 years, saving their families over €2 million in therapy fees.
CEO, Karen Leigh is the founding member of Sensational Kids. Having experienced lengthy waiting lists and a lack of affordable and accessible occupational therapy services for her own children, Karen founded Sensational Kids in 2007 , bridging the gap between public and private therapy services for children of all abilities.
Today Sensational Kids employs 30+ staff, including a highly skilled clinical team across our child development centres in Kildare, Mayo, Monaghan and West Cork, providing vital supports such as occupational therapy, speech & language therapy, play therapy and hippotherapy.
Sensational Kids is Ireland’s leading non-profit provider of affordable and accessible early intervention services for children with additional needs in Ireland.
Why Sensational Kids?
A lack of affordable support services for children who are experiencing developmental delays, or those that have special educational needs, means that too many children in Ireland are struggling to reach their full potential. The figures themselves are startling;
- 70,000 children waiting for speech & language and occupational therapy
Identifying and treating these difficulties at a young age will give a child a much better quality of life, but with lengthy public waiting lists, often the only alternative for families is expensive private sector care.
Our Solution
Experiencing these difficulties first-hand, our CEO & Founder Karen Leigh became frustrated with the lengthy waiting lists her family faced in Ireland, not to mention the €120 an hour fees they had to pay for private occupational therapy. Determined to make a difference, she set out to create an affordable and accessible service that families like hers could benefit from.
Established in 2007, Sensational Kids operates as a child development centre, providing three key offerings for children and their families;
- Subsidised therapy services for children in need of additional support
- Professional development training workshops for those working with children with special needs
- Access to a range of specially selected learning resources from our play, develop & learn store
- Collectively, these services are ensuring that the children benefiting from them can improve their skills and maximise their potential.
Our Impact
To date, Sensational Kids has directly supported 9,000+ children from all over Ireland through our child development centres in Leinster, Munster & Connacht. Thanks to the fantastic work of the entire team, these children are now being given the opportunity to excel.
With our online store and retail shop helping to subsidise our services, Sensational Kids has already saved families in Ireland over €2 million in therapy fees alone, providing a practical, accessible, and affordable service for those in need.
Each year 500+ professionals benefit from upskilling through our range of professional development training workshops. Identifying and treating these difficulties at a young age will give a child a much better quality of life, but with lengthy public waiting lists, often the only alternative for families is expensive private sector care.
Sensational Kids caters to a wide range of sectors including
- Timely therapy intervention for children with additional needs, with and without a diagnosis (all abilities)
- Professional development training for those who work with children with additional needs
- Access to learning resources for organizations in education, and clinical service provision, child development, professionals, individuals, and educators
Our service model is built around three pillars:
ACCESS
- To Assessments
- To Nationwide Locations across three centres of excellence
NURTURE
- Occupational Therapy
- Speech & Language Therapy
- Hippotherapy
- Reading Tuition
- Play Therapy
- Educational Psychology
ENLIGHTEN
- Training Workshops &
- Learning Resources
For parents, teachers & healthcare professionals
National Child Development Centres
Our service offering at our Child Development Centres in Leinster, Munster, Ulster & Connacht includes early intervention and assessments for children of all abilities, including those with additional needs.
- Occupational therapy assessments and intervention
- Speech & Language therapy assessments and intervention
- Educational Psychological Assessments
- Play Therapy
- Specialist reading tuition for struggling readers
- Social Skills Groups
Our Vision
To be the leading, innovative, child development social enterprise in Ireland
Our Mission
To provide affordable, accessible family centred, clinical and educational services, and products to children of all abilities, through therapy, training and professional support that directly impacts lives
Our Values
To be the leading, innovative, child development social enterprise in Ireland
Our Main Objective
“To promote the health and welfare of children with special needs and children in need of additional supports by managing and operating a centre in County Kildare to enable such children to develop to their full potential by providing clinical assessments, occupational therapy, sensory integration therapy, speech and language therapy, psychological services and evidence-based therapies which impact on child development and wellbeing, and to make such services available to a wider population within the Republic of Ireland by endeavoring to open further such centres.””
