>> SCHOOL SYSTEM
The Baldwin County School District has placed sensory rooms at the Early Learning Center and each of its primary schools and academies.
According to Structural Learning, a company specializing in learning toolkits and assistance for teachers, a sensory room is a specially designed environment that caters to the sensory needs of a student. These rooms are mostly used for students with special needs or learning disabilities.
According to Disability Service Coordinator Jamy Meeks, she learned about sensory rooms while teaching Pre-K in another school district. She saw the benefits first hand and worked closely with Superintendent Dr. Noris Price to make sensory rooms available at each school.
“I came here in 2021 and I implemented a sensory room with some minimal funds and they already had a sensory room at Lakeview Academy for GNET students,” said Meeks.
“So with leftover COVID funds we established sensory in all five schools.” According to Meeks, the designer of the rooms has a daughter with a sensory processing disorder and had expertise in creating sensory rooms and spaces. The rooms are designed to provide support for children with sensory processing disorders and socio-emotional needs.
Each room is equipped with an array of features and interactive elements designed to provide auditory, visual, and tactile stimulation to offer a tranquil environment, engage students into learning, and work on social skills.
“Each of our rooms are a bit different but they each have soft seating, crash pads, fiber optic lighting, bubble tubes, and more in common,” said Meeks.
“These rooms are used as needed and we have staff to support and guide students when inside the room.”
According to Meeks, behavioral support staff and special education staff will observe and guide students as needed within the sensory rooms. However, the rooms are created to be a safe and positive environment for students to interact with and explore on their own. The room provides support towards emotional regulation and will provide needed engaging stimuli to “inattentive students.”
“The biggest benefit of the room is allowing students to calm down and learn to regulate themselves,” said Meeks.
“Teachers have been trained to be able to identify when that is a need and will be able to contact staff to escort students to the sensory rooms. The goal is for the rooms to help students learn these necessary skills so they can learn to regulate their emotions and socialize better within the classroom setting.”
According to a press release, Lakeview Primary had its sensory room fully implemented last year, and according to Principal Tracy Clark, the sensory room has proven to be highly effective.
“It’s absolutely amazing,” she said in the press release, “and the cool thing is that the amount of time they need to be here has gotten shorter and shorter, and the amount of time in the classroom has gotten longer and longer.”
Sensory rooms offer a unique approach to learning that promotes not only academic growth but encourages personal growth through the strengthening of sensual skills and self-regulation.
“Sometimes in a classroom our students may not look like the ‘typical’ learner and being able to visit the sensory room allows them the freedom to engage and learn in their own unique way,” said Meeks.