Why Every Kid Will Be Able To Enjoy Dream Park
Dr. Diane visits a park for 'children of all abilities'
My family and I got to spend an amazing afternoon at the new Dream Park at Trinity Park in Fort Worth!
What makes this park so special? Well, it’s not your typical run-of-the-mill playground. It’s a park for “children of all abilities.”
Children in wheelchairs. Children with low muscle tone. Kids with movement disorders and trouble with coordination. Kids with sensory processing problems. They will all be able to enjoy Dream Park!
“Dream Park is a universally-inclusive playground; custom designed for children of all abilities, that goes above and beyond Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines,” mentions the website.
The over $3 million playground was privately funded by numerous folks and companies in the community, including Cook Children’s.
It came together over the past six years by the work of “Dream Park Fort Worth,” a nonprofit led by Rachael Churchill, Sandy Mesch and Corrie Watson.
What does a park “for all abilities” look like?
Well…nothing that makes kids feel it’s any different from any other awesome playground.
What I saw was nothing that indicated it was a park for kids who are “different.” The colors are bright, the layout is fun and huge, the inclines are gradual and easy to manage for even the smallest or poorly coordinated of kids.
There are swings that can be shared by more than one person. There are awesome zip lines that can be enjoyed by children and older kids – I wanted to get on those myself!
The pathways and inclines are wheelchair-friendly and so many of the amenities can be enjoyed by both parent and child together in play.
There are musical instruments, a really cool “rolling slide” that could be sped up or slowed based on the comfort of the child, a gentle and large four-person seesaw, and a sound dome that would be soothing for kiddos with trouble processing a lot of sound sensory input.
The whole park is enclosed with a fence to help with any kids who have tendencies to run or stray from families. I felt secure that my two runners were contained!
It is totally cool to have this gem right here in Cowtown. What a great job done by some pretty amazing people in our community.
So yeah. It’s a park for kids of all abilities. But you’d never know by looking at it – and that’s the magic of it. Kids won’t feel weird or different being at Dream Park. They can play easily with their friends, and families will love seeing their children enjoy more freedoms and fun.
Get to know Diane Arnaout, M.D.
"Dr. Diane Arnaout is a pediatrician at the Cook Children's Forest Park practice. If you would like to see her at Forest Park, call 817-336-3800 or click here for an appointment. Dr. Diane has been a Cook Children’s physician since 2011.
She got her undergraduate degree at Texas A&M University, went to medical school at the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio, and completed her pediatric residency in the Texas Medical Center at UT Health Science Center in Houston.
She is board-certified by the American Board of Pediatrics. She has two small kids, whom she credits as being her toughest (and best) teachers. She loves being a pediatrician and loves to teach parents all about their childrens’ health daily, both in-person and online.”
