Sensory Integration: Part 1 - A Sensory Room

A glimpse into our Sensory Room.

Hello!  First off, I want to apologize for my long absence!  Immediately following our 2 week winter break, we had two additional days with no school due to extremely cold weather.  This made what is typically a very difficult return, even more difficult.  Since then, we have had several days with no school for professional development, and two late start days.  Add in IEP meetings, and a new semester and I have had a very difficult time getting through the days, getting everything done, and getting caught up!  But...things have finally slowed down, and I wanted to take some time do blog about something that I feel many Special Educators are learning more and more about with each year.  That is sensory integration.  I am a "young" educator, having only been teaching for going on 7 years.  In that short time frame, the amount of students I serve who have been identified on the Autism Spectrum, has more than doubled.  In the last few years, needing to find ways to provide supports and services for these young adults, I have thrown myself into the exploration of Sensory Integration.  I have gone to many professionals in my field, our Autism consultant, our OTA, and SLP.  I have "googled," "Pinterested," and thrown myself into literature about Autism and sensory integration...all in search of tools and solutions for these young adults who have this need.  So...I'm an expert now, right?!?  Not even close.  But, that is what is so great about creating a community of sharing in the world of Special Education services!  I have some ideas that might work for you, come on over...

When you work to prepare students for the transition to the adult world, you work within many environments: the classroom, the grocery store, the work site...AND what works for sensory integration in one place may not work in another...one enviroment may cause a student to require MORE sensory integration than another.  So, in the past year, I have learned to keep an open mind, and always be prepared with an escape plan! ;-)  In any case, I have come to find that there are some tools that are great for specific enviroments and the most logical place to start is in the classroom, and in our classroom, I will start by introducing you to our sensory room.

Our classroom is very special in that it was recently re-modeled and tailor-made for us!  When I say tailor-made, I mean that I, as the teacher, was given the opportunity to meet with the architects and essentially had the freedom to design my classroom.  I shot for the moon, and I just about got it, and now have the most beautiful and special classroom to meet the diverse needs of my students.  One of the things I made sure to advocate for in this space was a "Sensory Room."  These are growing in popularity across schools, providing a space for students to go during their day and meet their sensory needs.  So, upon the completion of the room, I had this beautiful room, a grant for sensory needs...and now the daunting task to fill it.  I dove into research.  I wanted a space that met the needs of every student in my classroom that might need sensory integration during the day, but didn't want to have to start over each year with a new batch of student.  What are the must haves?  What should I avoid?  What I learned first, was to take a deep breath and just chill (maybe I was the one who most needed time in this sensory room?!?), because as long as I followed several basic parameters, the possibilities were endless.

What is the purpose of a sensory room?  How does a student benefit from sensory integration?  We have our senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell, balance (vestibular), and body awareness (proprioception).  For many of us, our bodies work through and process the many sensory encounters it has without conscious thought or effort and we go through our day feeling feeling fine.  Some individuals become sensitive to certain sensory encounters, and need to find a balance if they are exposed to too much.  Still others are "under" sensitive, and may require additional sensory encounters than what they are exposed to in a typical day.  So the purpose of a sensory room is to provide a variety of opportunities for engagement of all seven senses.  You want things in there that will "amp" up the students who may need that, and things that will "calm" others.  And because everyone's needs are different, each person should have an individualized sensory experience.  Whew!  Piece of cake, right?

The tactile board, made by my very talented and handy paraprofessional!

So to start, I listed the senses on a sheet of paper and began brainstorming engagement activities that could be paired with that particular sense.  For sight I included, a bubble tube, blinking lights, glittery objects, to name a few.  For sound I included personalized music players with cds with both upbeat and soothing music.  For touch I included a tactile board, rice searches, silly putty.  For taste I included gum, or suck on candies, for smell I included a "plug-in" air freshner, an activity with coffee beans, scented crayons/markers, for vestibulary we included a trampoline and for propriocetion we included a basketball hoop and paddle boards.  The brainstorming continued until we had a massive list of possibilities.  Then came the time for shopping...

"Fidget Toss" - one of the many sensory activities.

From there we created individualized bins with each sensory experience.  Each has a picture label to identify the bin and they line two bookshelves in our perfectly cozy room.  To individualize the sensory experience for each student, once all the sensory bins were completed, I brought each student into the room one on one.  I encouraged them to try every bin and I watched and took notes as they pulled out each box.  I noted what they selected first, their engagement, did the put it down and move on right away or did the engage for a while...how long?  Were some activities that they avoided altogether?  Did they try something and become agitated?  From all this data, I created slips for each students individualized sensory experiences.  When it is their time for sensory time (this is always thoughtfully scheduled into their day, if it is something they need) they go to the bag and find their card, and complete those activities.  Many students, who have been participating in Sensory time since the beginning of the school year, no longer require their lists, but go in and complete the activities, unprompted at their scheduled time.

Sensory Card

Sensory Bins.

The impact has been great! In thoughtfully planning out and scheduling their sensory time, many of our students have the opportunity to use their sensory time to help regulate their bodies and their needs before going out into the community, or after a long period of work.  This practice has drastically decreased the amount of behaviors and outbursts that they had prior to spending time in the sensory room.

But...what happens when a student has a sensory need and you are out in the community, with no access to a sensory room?  Be on the look out for my next post: Sensory Integration: Part 2 - Out in the Community!

Until then...are you looking for sensory tools or experiences for your students??

Come to the edge with me...
Mackenzie

A labor of love!  Putting together the sensory room.