Sensory rooms are now more common in schools, hospitals, and community centers. They often serve multiple kiddos and focus on creating a controlled sensory-focused experience. These experiences can then be tailored to the specific needs of individuals who need them.
What is the Purpose of a School Sensory Room?
These rooms can serve multiple purposes and functions. They can help promote self-regulation and serve as a calming or alerting area, provide leisure activities, help with sensory integration, or act as a skills training area. Multiple students can also be in the space at one time and explore equipment/activities together!
Who Do the Sensory Rooms Help?
A well-designed sensory room can serve individuals of all ages, we have served clients from ages 5-75! The facilitators can also include parents, caregivers, teachers, and therapists.
Why Have a Sensory Room?
Those individuals who have ADHD, Autism, Down Syndrome, etc, often will have sensory impairments. By having resources and equipment to control the sensory input it can possibly eliminate other distractions and assist individuals to attend to the specific objects that can help them make sense of their external environment.
A sensory room can provide these additional benefits (Unwin, 2021):
Enhance learning through play
Improve balance, movement, and spatial orientation
Develop communication skills
De-stress
Improve focus
Promote socialization
How do Schools and Mental Health Facilities use Sensory Rooms? (Price et al., 2018)
Reduce stress
Reduce stereotyped/repetitive behaviors
Reduce aggression
Increase focus
Motivate learning
Increase interaction
Assist with sensory integration therapy
How do You Set Up a Sensory Room?
Before designing the room, here are a few important things to consider:
The individual needs of the student(s) who will be using the room. What are the ages, abilities, and needs of the individuals who will be using the room?
How many individuals will need to use the room at the same time?
How will the room be used? Will it be a calming or alerting area? One-on-one instruction or therapy sessions? Which professions will be utilizing it?
Keep in mind the longevity of the room. A good goal is to create a space that is flexible to create different spaces or moods depending on the needs of the students. How will the room be adapted to the changing needs of those who use it?
Common Components:
What Color to Paint the Room?
The traditional route to think of paint colors for a sensory room is more neutral tones. This then allows different visual effects to show up better.
More Set-Up Tips:
Make sure you have adequate measurements of the space before adding in equipment. This will allow the students to move freely within the space. Uncrowded spaces are essential for managing overstimulation and stress (Oostermeijer et al., 2021).
Before ordering equipment make sure you have budgeted enough money for installation and possible shipping costs. Check to make sure there are enough electrical outlets. Depending on the equipment you ordered you may need to contact a contractor and/or electrician within the budget.
When planning the room pay attention to electrical outlet placement. You can save a lot of money by simply placing equipment near an existing outlet.
Think about floor and/or wall coverings. Some room designs cover the entire floor with wall-to-wall mats. This will also need to be considered if there is a student who utilizes a wheelchair as it could make it difficult for them to move around the space.
Staff Training is a Must
When implementing a sensory space, sometimes it can be misused or not have the desired effect. This could be due to poor design or lack of staff training on how to properly use the room, It is essential that support staff understand how to use the room itself, not just the equipment inside. Check out our website for guided recommendations for various equipment and tools!
It is much more important how the staff is using the space not what is already in it. One of the most common mistakes is to go into a sensory room and turn on every piece of equipment. This can be very overstimulating for some. If used incorrectly, students can give off aggressive behaviors. The equipment is only effective as well as you use it!
References
Oostermeijer, S., Brasier, C., Harvey, C., Hamilton, B., Roper, C., Martel, A., ... & Brophy, L. (2021). Design features that reduce the use of seclusion and restraint in mental health facilities: a rapid systematic review. BMJ open, 11(7), e046647
Price O, Baker J, Bee P, Lovell K. (2018) The support-control continuum: An investigation of staff perspectives on factors influencing the success or failure of de-escalation techniques for the management of violence and aggression in mental health settings. Int J Nurs Stud. Jan;77:197-206.
Unwin, K. L., Powell, G., & Jones, C. R. (2021). The use of multi-sensory environments with autistic children: Exploring the effect of having control of sensory changes. Autism, 26(6), 1379–1394. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613211050176
