Sensory Equipment for Hydrotherapy Pool
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Who are we?
Mayfield School, Mayfield College and Mayfield Chestnut meet the Special Educational Needs (SEND) of children and young people from all over Torbay. All of our pupils and students have an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) for either Severe Learning Difficulties (SLD), Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD) – School and College or Social, emotional and Mental Health difficulties (SEMH) – Chestnut.
At Mayfield’s sites there is a significant focus on meeting the Sensory and Physical need of our young people – a key element of their EHCP. The school site has a number of sensory and movement spaces which are now dated, tired and in need of full redevelopment with the latest, evidence based, equipment.
Our development and re-development of sensory spaces at Mayfield will have the following impact on the life of our pupils:
- Improving the quality of life of people with learning disabilities
- Early intervention
- Improving health
- Decreasing challenging behaviors.
What is a Sensory Room?
A Sensory Room is a specially designed space aimed to stimulate the senses, promoting de-escalation and/or encouraging engagement. Sensory experiences can be hugely beneficial to children and adults alike. They are great for promoting a range of developmental skills. For example, colour recognition, hand-eye coordination, fine and gross motor skills.
They can be extremely useful for people with autism, sensory processing disorders and PMLD, as well as many other disabilities.
A variety of sensory equipment and can be set up to target specific needs and purposes. Maybe the aim is to create a "Calming Room", which is used to aid in the de-escalation of the pupil. Including items such as floor and wall padding for protection, along with colour changing mood lighting for distracting and calming.
Alternatively, a Sensory Space could be about interacting with their surroundings. This would be referred to as an "Interactive Sensory Room". Incorporating items such as Interactive Sensory Switches and/or App Control. New technology has provided the ability to offer so many more features and special educational benefits.
What are we trying to achieve?
The funding request for the refurbishment of hydrotherapy pool sensory equipment would support us in providing an exciting teaching environment to support the cognitive development of children across the school; we have almost 100 children in the school with complex sensory needs and the provision of specialized multi-sensory environments would allow each of those children to work on individual teaching activities to enable them to better reach their potential. Being able to isolate or multiply sensory input appropriately using the technology in a multi-sensory room is invaluable in supporting children in increasing their functional understanding and in beginning to make sense of the world around them.
Additionally; For our 50+ children with visual impairments, working in a multi-sensory environment can facilitate vision that they are not able to utilize functionally in ‘normal’ rooms and we are able to support them in better tracking and understanding stimuli to improve their visual function. These are essential skills in the development of early reading and attention and we see children making exceptional progress when they have lessons in dedicated multi-sensory rooms. Through the consistent use of these environments we have been able to see children progress from being non-seeing toddlers to driving their own electric wheelchairs which is phenomenal progress. Such work has had to be ‘on hold’ while we wait for the refurbishment of the rooms.
Lastly, but equally as important, for those children with sensory processing difficulties, working in multi-sensory rooms can allow for specified teaching activities that encourage youngsters to manage a wider range of stimuli and make appropriate choices about their environment. The self-advocacy and control that this brings can help children to understand their impact on the world thus impacting both cognitive function and mental well-being. We strongly believe that for a large number of the school community the refurbishment of the sensory rooms would have a positive impact on both their cognitive capacity and their mental well-being, while allowing opportunities for heightened levels of engagement across the school day.
Who are we?
Mayfield School, Mayfield College and Mayfield Chestnut meet the Special Educational Needs (SEND) of children and young people from all over Torbay. All of our pupils and students have an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) for either Severe Learning Difficulties (SLD), Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD) – School and College or Social, emotional and Mental Health difficulties (SEMH) – Chestnut.
At Mayfield’s sites there is a significant focus on meeting the Sensory and Physical need of our young people – a key element of their EHCP. The school site has a number of sensory and movement spaces which are now dated, tired and in need of full redevelopment with the latest, evidence based, equipment.
Our development and re-development of sensory spaces at Mayfield will have the following impact on the life of our pupils:
- Improving the quality of life of people with learning disabilities
- Early intervention
- Improving health
- Decreasing challenging behaviors.
What is a Sensory Room?
A Sensory Room is a specially designed space aimed to stimulate the senses, promoting de-escalation and/or encouraging engagement. Sensory experiences can be hugely beneficial to children and adults alike. They are great for promoting a range of developmental skills. For example, colour recognition, hand-eye coordination, fine and gross motor skills.
They can be extremely useful for people with autism, sensory processing disorders and PMLD, as well as many other disabilities.
A variety of sensory equipment and can be set up to target specific needs and purposes. Maybe the aim is to create a "Calming Room", which is used to aid in the de-escalation of the pupil. Including items such as floor and wall padding for protection, along with colour changing mood lighting for distracting and calming.
Alternatively, a Sensory Space could be about interacting with their surroundings. This would be referred to as an "Interactive Sensory Room". Incorporating items such as Interactive Sensory Switches and/or App Control. New technology has provided the ability to offer so many more features and special educational benefits.
What are we trying to achieve?
The funding request for the refurbishment of hydrotherapy pool sensory equipment would support us in providing an exciting teaching environment to support the cognitive development of children across the school; we have almost 100 children in the school with complex sensory needs and the provision of specialized multi-sensory environments would allow each of those children to work on individual teaching activities to enable them to better reach their potential. Being able to isolate or multiply sensory input appropriately using the technology in a multi-sensory room is invaluable in supporting children in increasing their functional understanding and in beginning to make sense of the world around them.
Additionally; For our 50+ children with visual impairments, working in a multi-sensory environment can facilitate vision that they are not able to utilize functionally in ‘normal’ rooms and we are able to support them in better tracking and understanding stimuli to improve their visual function. These are essential skills in the development of early reading and attention and we see children making exceptional progress when they have lessons in dedicated multi-sensory rooms. Through the consistent use of these environments we have been able to see children progress from being non-seeing toddlers to driving their own electric wheelchairs which is phenomenal progress. Such work has had to be ‘on hold’ while we wait for the refurbishment of the rooms.
Lastly, but equally as important, for those children with sensory processing difficulties, working in multi-sensory rooms can allow for specified teaching activities that encourage youngsters to manage a wider range of stimuli and make appropriate choices about their environment. The self-advocacy and control that this brings can help children to understand their impact on the world thus impacting both cognitive function and mental well-being. We strongly believe that for a large number of the school community the refurbishment of the sensory rooms would have a positive impact on both their cognitive capacity and their mental well-being, while allowing opportunities for heightened levels of engagement across the school day.
Organizer
Adam Tapp
Organizer
England
