Updated 3/8/2023
Specially configured areas where children can explore their environments through visual, auditory and tactile experiences, “[sensory spaces] offer highly individualized experiences and serve individuals with a variety of disabilities including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), developmental disabilities, cerebral palsy and sensory processing disorders,” says Karen Gallichio, Product Development Specialist at Enabling Devices.
Sensory rooms can also benefit students without disabilities, making them a great investment for the school environment overall. Read on to discover the many benefits of sensory rooms in schools and learn what types of sensory tools will work best in your sensory room.
1. Sensory Skill Development
School sensory rooms can help children enhance their fine and gross motor skills alongside their auditory, visual and tactile processing abilities. These spaces can be especially helpful for children with disabilities that affect their vestibular and proprioceptive systems, which control balance and the body’s ability to sense motion within its parts.
Sensory activities can stimulate nerve growth and build nerve connections in the brain, which help children learn new skills and put them into practice in various environments. Research has suggested that multisensory experiences are best for improving language and social skills and enhancing physical development.
2. Stress Relief
For many kids with sensory sensitivities, too much stimulation can cause sensory overload. Overload often leads to stress, irritability, fear and discomfort. Sensory rooms in schools help students navigate sensations and emotions with soft lighting, pleasant smells, a quiet atmosphere and self-regulating sensory toys.
Along with the toys you incorporate, the room’s layout should promote stress relief. Furniture that creates spatial boundaries, soft flooring and padded seats and walls all contribute to an environment where children can feel safe, calm and comfortable.
3. Safe Space
Safe and calming sensory experiences can help a child who is sensitive to sensory input and easily overwhelmed develop a positive association between emotions like relaxation or joy and sensory input. A sensory room for schools provides a safe place for kids to decompress from the overstimulation of noisy classrooms full of different sights, sounds and textures.
When students feel safe and calm, they can better focus on their work, regulate their emotions and be less overwhelmed when they return to the classroom.
4. Inclusion of All Students
Sensory rooms can accommodate students with different abilities and allow them to enjoy a learning environment crafted specifically for their needs. These rooms also help them learn and engage with their peers without feeling excluded.
Edutopia reported on a sensory room that was created for students in the Meriden School District in Meriden, Connecticut.
Before the sensory room was created, students with functional needs in the Meriden district had to be sent outside of their home schools to receive the services they required. Meriden’s Director of Pupil Personnel Patricia Sullivan-Kowalski told Edutopia that this practice “resulted in students feeling less connected to their community. By creating their own sensory room,” said Sullivan-Kowalski, “administrators gained the ability to keep students in their community and provide them with a safe place in a least restrictive environment.”
Additionally, administrators found that the sensory room was helpful to all students, not just students with disabilities. Says Edutopia’s School Selection Coordinator Peter Poutiatine: “We often find that practices designed to meet the needs of the most challenging students in a school are effective for all kids.”
5. Increased Focus and Self-Regulation
Sensory places help students improve their self-regulation by providing a comforting space where they can safely calm down from overstimulation. Kids can develop coping skills by managing their brain and body’s reactions to overstimulation, which subsequently increases their focus. They can also explore sensory experiences that might be uncomfortable for them in other contexts, such as the busy classroom, in a place that allows them to self-regulate more easily.
Self-regulation lets children improve their concentration, self-control and ability to process input so they can retain more information. A child’s belief in their own abilities also influences the development of self-regulation skills, which is why it’s essential to have a safe space where students can practice managing their behaviors and feelings without judgment or stress.
Product Suggestions for Your School’s Sensory Room
Perhaps you’ve imagined how wonderful it would be to have a sensory space in your classroom or school but assumed it would be prohibitively expensive or would require a great deal of square footage. But that’s not necessarily the case. In fact, you can create a sensory space for as little as a few hundred dollars, and it can be located in a spare closet, an alcove or even a vinyl tent. Why not start small and build out as funding and space become available?
Here are products under $500 you can use to start creating your school’s sensory room or expand on what’s already there:
- Ball Chairs: Our Ball Chairs can help improve students’ posture and balance and are great seating solutions for learners who have trouble focusing in class or sitting still. The chair’s wheels/casters lock for safety and keep the chair in place, while the high chair back offers comfortable support.
- Disco Ball: With a Disco Ball, soft lights in colors like red, yellow and blue provide your sensory room with a calming display. This product can help increase visual attention and tracking.
- Activity Wall Panels: Our wooden wall panels provide colorful activities like matching games and come in eye-catching animal shapes, such as a frog, horse and zebra. Students can work on developing eye-hand coordination and sensory-motor skills with a vibrant abacus, wire maze and set of geometric shapes or gears.
- Gel Pad Activity Center: Kids can experience auditory, tactile and visual stimulation and learn about cause and effect with this activity center. Pressing the buttons causes a mini fan to blow, lights to flash and glitter to spin inside a capsule, all while providing fun music.
- Jellyfish Soother: By activating an external switch or simply pressing the jellyfish body, students can enjoy a calming tune and see all the colors of the rainbow. The Jellyfish Soother’s soft texture offers a comforting tactile experience for kids.
- Pea Pods: Our durable sensory Pea Pods provide a place for students to sit and relax thanks to the seating’s deep yet comfortable pressure. Along with this soothing pressure, the velvet surface offers softness for a positive tactile experience.
- Textured Marble Fidget Board: Add a mirrored fidget board with smooth-textured marbles to your sensory room to help kids practice emotional self-regulation. This calming activity also helps increase tactile awareness.
- Somatosensory Tubes: Somatosensory Tubes help students improve their sensory-motor skills and ability to localize sound with calming vibrations and glowing lights.
Build Your School’s Sensory Room With Enabling Devices
Putting together a sensory room for your school allows you to better serve your students’ needs and give them the tools for skill development and self-regulation, which will help them throughout their lives. Enabling Devices has the products your school is looking for to create a space that benefits both students and teachers with a calming environment.
Browse through more of our offerings to see what fits your vision. If you’re interested in customizing a product to fit a specific goal, we can work with you to design a new solution. Reach out today for more information about our products and how we can help you choose the right tools for your sensory room.
