Whenever I’m asked about sensory rooms and sensory processing issues, I often toss back the question, “How do you self-regulate?” This question is often met with confusion unless the person asking has reflected on their own self-regulation habits and routines. Typical adults often find ways to self-regulate throughout the day. Morning coffee, chewing gum, exercising, healthy eating, developing consistent daily routines, and even taking naps are all considered ways of maintaining self-regulation. When self-regulation, a term frequently reserved for children with neurodiverse profiles, is applied to everyone, sensory processing and the use of sensory rooms will be better understood. Self-regulation skills are required for all students to participate successfully in school. For students with disabilities, especially those with a neurodiverse profile, staying regulated is an ongoing challenge throughout the school day unless opportunities are offered for students to learn and practice how to manage their minds and bodies in the context of school.
What is a sensory room?
For the purposes of this article, a sensory room is typically a room in a school (usually an elementary school) that is used as a place for students with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) to go for a “sensory break” during the course of the school day. The intent of the room is to provide personalized experiences that may help regulate a student’s sensory system, aligned with Winnie Dunn’s Sensory Processing Model, which proposes that humans have varying thresholds for and responses to sensory input from everyday life events. Sensory input can be from any of the five commonly described senses (taste, touch, smell, hearing, and sight) as well as lesser-known senses like vestibular, proprioception, and interoception. Students who utilize sensory rooms should be coached to understand their own sensory processing so they can take advantage of the sensory room as a self-regulation tool.
As one might imagine, typical classrooms offer a range of sensory inputs, and each student in a classroom processes/responds to that input differently, making a teacher’s job complex and challenging. Typically developing children are more adept at processing sensory input and responding in ways that are generally appropriate in a classroom setting. For neurodiverse students with IEPs, the variety and amount of sensory experiences in a classroom can make it impossible for them to engage appropriately in social, behavioral, or academic contexts. Sensory rooms can offer assistance with attaining and maintaining self-regulation. Unfortunately, sensory rooms are often misused, becoming places that students are taken to when it’s too late for sensory regulation to occur.
How can students benefit from sensory rooms?
While sensory rooms are excellent sources of learning, practice, and respite for neurodiverse students, careful attention and training regarding their use is critical for students to get the benefits. Students who use sensory rooms should have regular opportunities to access them throughout the day, preferably on a schedule. A well-designed, personalized schedule can help the body/mind stay “even” instead of the roller coaster patterns we often see in students who wait for others to notice their dysregulation and then remove them from a classroom to go “get regulated.” For typically developing students, regulation schedules look like recess, bathroom breaks, water/snack breaks, PE, and lunch.
The schedule should be faithfully followed, regardless of the schoolwork that needs to be finished. Sometimes, an adult will say to a student, “Finish this one problem, and then you can go to the sensory room.” This type of bargaining is not the purpose of the sensory room; the sensory room is not a reward. Well-meaning adults also say, “If you don’t sit down right now, you will have to go to the sensory room.” Making threatening statements around sensory room use is destructive and discourages students from its use. The sensory room is a tool for self-regulation, and all language around its use should be delivered with this in mind. Staff who are charged with bringing students to sensory rooms should understand their role in helping the student follow the schedule and how critical their relationship with the student is for success.
What do I need to know about creating a sensory room?
Sensory room set-up, logistics, and schedules should be developed and structured by a school-based occupational therapist who has completed sensory-based assessments and made recommendations for students. Specific justification for a student to use a sensory room should be well-documented in the IEP. Special education teachers, school-based speech therapists, school-based physical therapists, and special education aides can carry out sensory room schedules with the proper training. Any student who uses a sensory room for self-regulation should engage in reflection activities and data collection that are easily accessible to the student and to all staff who engage with that student.
In school settings, children with neurodiverse profiles often struggle to be successful during transitions, and the transition to the sensory room is no different. Timers, visual schedules, and the development of self-planning skills can all assist with transitioning into and out of the sensory room. Staff must remember to be student-centered when implementing transition strategies. Students who have ownership over strategies are more likely to use them than students whose strategies are owned by adults.
Sensory rooms in schools can offer students who have issues processing sensory stimuli found at school a way to attain and maintain calm bodies and minds that are ready to learn, socialize, and participate fully in their academic experiences. Our neurodiverse students deserve the chance to feel safe, supported, and included in their school environments.
