If you expect your special needs children to sit in a homeschool classroom and focus on their lessons as per your schedule, you are not going to have an easy time corralling them. However using a sensory room can become a great way to let them learn on their own pace with minimal effort on your part as the teacher, that is after you set it up initially of course.A sensory room is a specially designated space with equipment that helps in teaching special needs children. Here’s some question to ask yourself before you get set creating the sensory room.
What is the primary purpose of the sensory room?
Is it going to be an action room where your homeschool student with special needs will be blowing off steam. Such a room is well suited to hyperactive children who find it difficult to sit still. Is it going to be a calm room where the special needs child can go to sit in peace and quiet? Even the parents can use the calm room to regain peace of mind. As you can imagine the basic purpose that the room is going to be used for will determine how you go about setting it up and the equipment that you will be installing in it. So spend some time on this and come up with a workable list of things that you need to get.
Can you allocate a space for the sensory room?
Very often it can be difficult to set aside a full room for the explicit purpose of a sensory room. You will in most cases be looking at setting aside a space in one of the less commonly used rooms in your home. Remember is has to be an interactive space that encourages the child with special needs to explore, so think about what the rest of the room is currently being utilized for and how it will fit into the theme of the sensory room. A number of skills such as vocalisation, gross motor skills, colour recognition and tracking can be taught in the room effectively if done right.
