Woodland Park Elementary has a new sensory room to help give its students with disabilities a better learning environment.
First and Second Grade Comprehensive Special Education Teacher Alli Wolford said it is a room that allows students with disabilities to interact with objects of various textures, colors, and sounds as they see fit. Wolford said these students cannot regulate their own emotions through typical methods and must be taught how.
“There are many methods and activities that they can go in and practice and learn how to do these things such as, you know, taking time to count down from five and breath, taking time to realize what’s going on around them before acting on it,” Wolford said.
Wolford said the room includes activities to encourage creativity and is a safe space for these students to burn off their excess energy. She said they have Play-Doh and Kinetic Sand to practice fine motor skills, stepping stones and a swing for gross motor skills, and a spinning chair for students experiencing sensory overload.
“It’s just all of these thing in one place that’ll better support our students,” Wolford said.
Wolford said the room is also available for any student in the White County Elementary School who wants to use it.
“We sometimes get those students that still struggle with the social and emotional skills of regulating their emotions, or just some of those hyperactive students as well,” Wolford said. “This is another area that they may be escorted to where they can kind of learn that process to or expend some of that energy.”
She said the room is also used for other activities like speech and occupational therapy. Wolford said the school had a sensory room in the past, but it only had space for one or two students.
“It just encased a swing and a couple of, like, additives in there,” Wolford said.
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