The Use and Benefits of Sensory Rooms in Schools

One of the most common desires for just about any school is either more space or better facilities. Although many young people find their needs met by attentive teaching staff, there are a number of children with special educational needs (SEN) that the school would love to be able to support.

Providing facilities for children with various abilities is something that means a lot to both pupils and their families, who otherwise could struggle to find such facilities nearby. For schools, an issue can be finding suitable space to create them, especially if the school was built a number of decades ago. Finding a space that's not only suitable but not earmarked for other purposes is very tricky.

A detached building away from the rest of the school could be ideal for something like a sensory room. For young people with varying abilities, a dedicated safe space can be beneficial, e.g. for those on the autistic spectrum a Quiet Zone can be a calming area that allows pupils to detach, relax and start to exercise 'self-regulation' skills, which help to build better coping mechanisms for stressful situations.

Good sensory rooms have controlled levels of light, which make visual aids such as bubble tubes, fibre optics and slowly changing light displays feel more prominent. Controlled light also makes other sensory presences more pronounced; music feels more involved and products such as tactile walls or projections more immersive.

While the benefits for a sensory room for pupils with special educational needs appear clear and pronounced, the problem for most schools is that extending existing buildings is not only time-consuming, expensive, admin-heavy and exceptionally disruptive. The process of building works can also be distressing, particularly to the very pupils the works are aiming to assist. Traditional school building extensions also require careful planning to ensure the new structures are not only structurally sound, but also work with existing heat, light, plumbing and fire safety protocols.

Education Spaces buildings, however, are different. Self-contained and designed around the space available, they work with the area and not against it. No matter what purpose is intended, Education Spaces buildings can be tailored for specific functions, such as sensory rooms, or left more general to suit a multi-purpose setup. Education Spaces construction is also much less intrusive than traditional methods and can even be arranged so that it takes place during holidays to avoid disruption to school life.

Many schools face a difficult balancing act between offering support to young people with additional needs and ensuring other pupils don't suffer by taking existing facilities away from them. Education Spaces can design and create a specific, self-contained and independent structure that allows the school to offer a diverse level of support to all of its pupils, regardless of the varying levels of ability.