Sensory Saturday--Auditory and Visual Sensitivity

 Gym Mat

A gym mat is a very versatile sensory tool. It can be use for practicing yoga or s'cool moves, made into an awesome tunnel, or used to block off an area that is too distracting or a child who is too distractable. 

Music

I have only started using music frequently in my classroom over the past couple years. Last year I used it for a student who would continually chatter during group work. We felt he was doing this because he was trying to cancel out some of the other classroom noises and it was like he was creating his own "white noise". Although this chattering may have been calming to him it was awful for the rest of us to endure! Playing  steady, calming music through headphones on low enough volume that it gave input but he could still hear me teach did the trick. I also use this calming music for kids whose engines are too revved up or for a calming break between activities.

Light Covers

A lot of my students are sensitive to the awful fluorescent lights that every school seems to have. In my little classroom I am able to switch off one of the light switches and my room is still lit fine throughout. However, in some of the bigger rooms switching off lights means a whole section of the room is dark. These blue light covers are perfect for this. Another option if you can get maintenance to do it is taking out some of the bulbs from each of your lights. I have one student who is still sensitive and he is allowed to wear a baseball cap all day.

Noise-Cancelling/Reducing Headphones

School can be a noisy place! Especially during assemblies or for my students with autism who are super sensitive to noise. Over the years I have had students who were "screamers" and I wish I would have had a set of noise-cancelling headphones for the whole class (including me!). 

 

 Tent

It is common for kids with sensory issues to need a safe place to "escape" from the stressful school environment. Scheduling time for a student to have a tent break is a great way to provide a place for this escape. The tent can block out all of the visual stimulation of the classroom. I have had several students who were not quite ready for the classroom due to their sensory defensiveness. Typically these kiddos were kindergarteners with autism who had had limited experiences outside of their own homes. For these students, I allowed them use a tent within my classroom. At first, they would spend a lot of the day within the tent coping with the new environment. The tent was a safe place for them in the stressful new environment. Gradually we worked on getting them more accustomed to us (either by sharing the tent with them for play activities) or by setting up opportunities that were fun and not threatening outside of the tent. This eventually led to less and less time in the tent and eventually full inclusion within our classroom.

Sensory Saturday--Movement

Mini Trampoline

A mini trampoline can give vestibular input (from jumping up and down) and proprioceptive input (from the pressure of jumping). I have used a mini trampoline for kids who need to wake up their systems in the and for kids who need to get some energy out.

Swing

A swing is another way to provide vestibular input and can be calming. 

Scooterboard

A scooterboard can provide a range of movement input. By pulling a student on a scooterboard you can provide vestibular input which is calming. If you whip the scooterboard in a circle (safely!) or zig-zag it back and forth this input would be alerting. If you have a student pull themselves with their ahands (as pictured) or if you sit on the scooterboard and have them pull you it is proprioceptive input.

Sensory Saturday-- Tactile

Last week I provided a list of Special Ed Teacher Must Haves and one of these must haves was sensory equipment. Over the next few weeks, I am going to focus on different sensory equipment that I use in my classroom for a new post series that I will call Sensory Saturdays. 

This week I will focus on tactile sensory equipment.

Theraputty

All of my kids LOVE theraputty. It is great for a tactile sensory break but it also works well for working on fine motor skills (each color of Theraputty is a different resistance). Additionally, we have used it during academic activities such as hiding coins to find and ID or hiding counters to find and count.

 Calming or Cooling Bags

Last year I learned that students who have sensory processing issues also often have a higher core body temperature. When I learned this it totally made sense because I noticed that after bouncing on a therapy ball or spending time in a body sock the kids would be beat red and sometimes sweaty even in just a short amount of time. This is when I started trying to incorporate some cooling activities at the end of a sensory break. I made cooling gel bags which the kids loved because they were squishy and I could add beads or small objects to also provide sensory input. I put the bags in the fridge to cool them down. However, several of my students squeeze too hard so I made goo gloves for them which can also be put into the fridge to cool down. 

"Chewys"

For those students who need oral/tactile input (you know the kids who always have their hands in their mouths) I use "chewys". They can be attached to a string or lanyard and worn as a necklace or attached to a stretchy spiral keychain and hooked to a belt loop.

Sensory Tubs

Sensory tubs are another great sensory tool for kids who need tactile input. Rice and beans are calming because they can be heavy and therefore provide deep pressure while pasta is alerting because it is "pokey". The sensory tubs pictured here are in my sensory table. The table acts as a catch-all for messes and decreased the amount of rice on the carpet each night. I would recommend getting tubs with lids and not putting more than one in the table at a time because no matter how many times you ask them not to the kids will mix them! Sensory tubs are also great to incorporate into academics by burying manipulatives (shape blocks, foam numbers, etc) and having kids dig them out and identify them. 

 Fidgets

Fidgets are a good way to occupy a student during a short break (when waiting their turn) or help with transitioning (fidget signals moving from place to place). They are also good for those kids who have difficulty keeping their hands off of materials or out of their desks. Many students focus better if they have a small fidget to squeeze or roll in their hand while you are talking.

Sensory Bottles

Sensory bottles can be used like fidgets and are great for those kids who like visual input. Additionally, they can be calming for some students who like watching the oil and/or items settle. However, I do not recommend them for something to use during small group time because they can be very distracting. Click here for how to make sensory bottles for your classroom.

Classroom Organization and Storage

I recently had a fellow MD teacher email me to ask about how I organized all of my materials. This is such a tricky part of the special ed classroom because we often have lots of stuff!! Each student has different needs which typically leads to different materials which leads to me making (and storing) a whole bunch of stuff. Plus, once you spend a lot of time making materials you hate to throw them away and end up hanging on to them just in case you get a kiddo with similar needs.

Taskboxes: A big part of teaching kids with autism is using taskboxes. Students with autism seem to thrive with taskboxes since there is a clear beginning and end. They are a great, reusable way to assess skills or provide extra practice.

In my room I use one of those white wire dividers to hold all of my taskboxes and some file folders that I use for students at the independent (or TEACCH) work center.

When we aren't getting materials off of the shelf I cover it with a simple, twin sheet from Walmart to decrease the visual stimuli in my classroom (if only I could get rid of that awful carpet!)

On the shelf, things are organized by type of task (matching, sorting, reading, writing, math, etc). I use different colored file folders for these different skills as well. To make for each clean-up each folder and taskbox has a colored foil star on the bottom that indicates its type. Therefore all of the right tasks are but together. This also makes for easy task set-up because I can just list what activities I want pulled for them (i.e. Student Name: 1 Math box, 1 Sorting box, 1 Reading file folder) and then my aides can easily get them set up.

Some of my kids don't use a lot of taskboxes but they still have independent work. For this, I use a huge pocket chart with individualized pockets for each student. This is also located near the independent work area and easily accessible.

Other materials for tracking specific IEP goals are located in clear plastic bins on an IEP bin shelf. The gray bin on the top of the shelf is where we keep all of the kids progress monitoring binders. It is all centrally located so that any of the staff members in the room can easily locate the needed materials when it is time for them to work with a student.

We use thematic units in my room so we have a lot of materials specific to one theme. Some themes have more materials than others. For the bigger collections, I have book boxes stored over my cubbies with all of the materials. For other themes I place a file in my file cabinet/closet. Some activities are stored on the other side of this cabinet in a hanging closet organizer (which also houses our movies).

The biggest life saver though are two huge metal shelves that I had purchased at my old school and my principal graciously let me take to my new building. I have TONS of stuff on these shelves. I store binders and resources I don't use often, most of my math manipulatives and materials, board games, extra school supplies, and multisensory math and reading materials.

I purchased some pale blue curtains which I hung on tension rods to cover these shelves because although they are as organized as I could get them, they are still a lot visually.

Each week after planning for groups, I grab any needed materials off the shelves and put them in my group bins on my amazing IKEA shelf with the removable bins. When it is time for a particular group I just have to grab my bin and go.

For the kids' toys, I have sectioned off a part of the room just for play time. Everything has a picture label and a special spot on the shelves that has a matching picture label. This helps with clean up. Also, I never let my kids have a free for all with the toys! They always choose one thing to play with on our choice board. I have learned from experience that this is the only way to keep that little area from looking like a tornado hit it every afternoon!

I don't think my storage is perfect, but I have a small space so I work with what I have. The key I think is to be as organized as possible and have a designated spot for everything. This makes it easier to locate needed materials quickly. If only I could get my desk under control!!! Ahhhhh!!