A northwest Alabama school system is focusing on assisting students who need help concentrating.
The Lauderdale County Board of Education posted on Facebook that Lauderdale County Elementary School now has a fully installed sensory room. The space includes padded walls, a spin board, lights, a compression swing and other items to help students refresh their senses.
Kim Meeks is the special education director for the Lauderdale County Schools system. She said the sensory room was created for children with anxiety, ADHD, autism and other conditions who need a place to reset.
“We were noticing that behaviors were on the rise. A lot of the kiddos did not have the skills they needed to be able to self-regulate" said Meeks.
"We were thinking, let’s look at the data from those rooms versus the schools that don’t have them. Then we were able to see that when they spend 10 to 15 minutes in a sensory room, they’re able to come back and focus and self-regulate.”
Meeks said benefits of the sensory rooms are long-lasting.
“It helps the children to improve their visual, auditory, and tactile processing, as well as sign and motor skills. It gives them what they need in such a short amount of time, but the benefit of that can last hours in a classroom to help them focus.”
The Lauderdale County Board of Education says sensory rooms will be installed at each of its schools over the next year.
