Baby Sensory

Thursday mornings at the Ludlow Mascall Centre bring two Baby Sensory sessions — 9:30am and 10:45am — for ages from birth to 13 months. Classes run on a term-time basis, so the year moves in natural blocks with breaks built in.

Leianne Bates, who has been a qualified dance teacher for over 20 years and is the principal of two dance schools, leads the local franchise covering Ludlow and the wider area: Bridgnorth, Tenbury Wells, Kidderminster, Leominster, and South Telford. Kimberley Wells is also part of the team — a dance teacher with over ten years of experience whose own daughters went through the programme before she trained to deliver it herself. Baby Sensory Ludlow was a finalist in the Business for Children's Award 2017 and received a highly commended recognition.

Every session follows a detailed lesson plan that covers all five senses: what your baby touches, sees, hears, smells, and feels has been worked through carefully. A signature song opens each class. From there the session moves through creative play, massage, tummy time, movement activities, and exploration of textures and scents. Original and traditional songs and rhymes run throughout, supporting early speech and language development alongside sensory signing — simple gestures that help parents and babies begin to communicate well before spoken words arrive. The sensory area is set up to match the distance at which young babies see clearly, and instrument volumes are checked so nothing is uncomfortably loud.

Each session closes the same way: womb sounds are played to settle babies before you leave. Parents are welcome to feed or cuddle their baby at any point. The activities are designed so they can be repeated at home, extending the session beyond the Mascall Centre walls.