I got some news recently… My girlfriend-wife (I call her that because she doesn’t know that I’m going to marry her yet and she can’t run forever!) has two beautiful nieces whom we just found out this week might suffer from cerebral palsy. She was very alarmed and scared. I, however, happened to know a very accomplished young man with cerebral palsy (it’s not a death sentence by any means!!).  I tried to assure her that we get many calls from parents with special needs children all the time and one of the most common ones I can think of is cerebral palsy.

Cerebral palsy is not terribly uncommon (1 in 400 live births) and there are many routes to treatment as well as programs that facilitate child development with such conditions. It reminded me of a call we got from a customer with a 4 year old boy that has cerebral palsy looking for soft flooring. For those not familiar: cerebral palsy it is a condition that affects motor skills. Generally speech and movement are affected at various degrees as a result of low birth weights. This makes it difficult to walk and speak and in many cases, children might be only able to move around with the help of walkers or wheelchairs.

After conversing with said customer about these specifics, he was surprised at my relative understanding of what he might need. His son had just been diagnosed with a milder form of cerebral palsy that mainly affected his ability to walk but nevertheless is VERY active. However, because he is so mobile and still needs to develop more coordination, he is prone to hurt himself since he tries to run and move faster than his feet can keep up.

Obviously, as sales people on the phone, there is really nothing we can do when we hear a proud yet exasperated parent looking to pad a room but give him good advice on the best interlocking floor mats and wall padding.  Luckily, he was just getting information so didn’t have to get all sales-pitchy on him. We do happen to actually encounter this often. We offered him samples of these materials and eventually got some wall paneling and soft tiles to keep the floor and wall padded and safe.

A personal friend of mine also was born with cerebral palsy. His case happened to be a bit more severe and he is bound to a wheelchair. Nevertheless, with the proper treatment, diagnosis, and a great support system of friends and family, he is on his way to getting his masters in law. If anyone happens to be interested in more information, this site is a great resource! -
http://cerebralpalsy.org/ -

It’s not totally uncommon for us to get feedback from our customers via email.  Since we deal with all matters of mats whether it’s for yoga, martial arts, gymnastics, or industrial kitchens, it’s always a exciting when customers attach a couple of pictures of what they actually did with their mats… especially on slightly more complicated, custom orders. 

One of my customers, (Tamara from Brookline, MA) got a little more creative than most of our customers.  We offer wall padding –  Conventional Wainscot Panels which are 2″ thick wooden-backed crosslink foam panels that mount on a wall.  You’ve probably seen them in high school gyms or sports facilitates.  The cost of these can add up quickly when covering larger wall areas since they are produced in 2′ widths and as a result, are generally not the best option for projects on a budget.  However, we also offer gymnastics folding mats that can be customized with velcro connectors on specific sides, but most importantly (in this case) we can add grommets which allow these tumbling mats to be hung on walls.

Tamara came to us with a particular project that required folding mats, wall padding, and column wraps for a kids play area in a basement.  After going back and forth for a couple of weeks, we designed custom floor mats as alternatives to the conventional wainscot panels and the results were quite honestly surprising, since I generally recommend the slightly pricier interlocking foam squares for kids floors and wooden backed wall panels.  Tamara’s ingenuity and shopping savvy paid off in a big way for her little one as she now has a large area to play in that is both colorful, safe, aesthetically pleasing, and most importantly, did not break the bank.