On Monday 8th July, we had the privilege of welcoming ‘Friends of Severndale’ (FoS) members to officially open the refurbished sensory room. FoS work tirelessly to fundraise for Severndale and they have made significant contributions to enable the sensory room refurbishment to take place.
The sensory room has been equipped with a range of high and low tech equipment which supports communication, interaction and cognition skills. Each item of equipment was selected with a significant emphasis on motivating, developing and embedding communication skills for pupils with Profound & Multiple Learning difficulties and Pathway 1 learners. Each learner in the sensory room has the opportunity to enhance their foundations of learning e.g. understanding of cause and effect, their sense of self, understanding of how their actions impact the environment and developing positive relationships through intensive interaction.
The space has been designed to provide learners with a change of environment to access postural support equipment and continue their learning in a positive and motivating way. The position, height and visual stimuli (including ceiling equipment) was selected with multi-faceted learning in mind. Our learners work extremely hard, physically and cognitively, when engaging in their physical programmes and when in equipment e.g. a standing frame, Achieeva bed, walking frame and floor-based equipment. The sensory room is also a haven for learners to engage in ‘Relax Kids’ sessions on a 1:1 basis which support emotional regulation through a sensitive, graduated approach to building a regulation toolkit which prepares learners for life. In addition to physical programmes, our learners have a space to engage with their ‘sensory’ programmes which support learners with visual impairments. We work closely with our NHS colleagues from Speech & Language, Sensory Inclusion, Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy who also have access to the space.
