The Intensive Behavior Support room is for students with the most challenging behaviors in the eastern county region. It provides an environment to teach social skills, coping skills, understanding emotions, and communication skills. We services students with a wide range of mental health needs.
Our school is a high poverty area that receives Title I funding.
A high percentage of our students also speak English as a second language. My students are wonderful kids who require additional support to help learn appropriate behaviors to function in the general education classroom and in society. They have a great sense of humor and tell things exactly how they are. The students have a diverse range of needs, including autism. The biggest issue my students with autism are facing is sensory overload in the classroom. Meltdowns from this can last for over two hours until the child can find the right input. Deep pressure and heavy items are the most calming for the students I currently serve.
My Project
The materials will be used daily to create scheduled sensory breaks for students with autism. This will give them a schedule for breaks that they need to get the sensory input they need on a regular basis. They will also be used when a child is overloaded and needs a calm place to calm down. Imagine a child who begins hitting and screaming because of clapping in the classroom. The student runs around the room, kicks the wall, screams, and cries. This student needs a soothing environment to help that child calm down and fix the over stimulation they are facing. Research also supports that a structured break schedule helps provide behavior improvements for individuals with autism. The goal being that with this schedule we can proactively address the behavior challenges these students are currently facing. The materials we are asking for focus on providing deep pressure, such as with the weighted blanket and pressure vest, as well as body awareness with the body sock, and tactile input
For my students with autism, sensory overload is a daily occurrence that can take away more than two hours of instruction and forces the child to spend more of his/her time away from peers than receiving social interaction and time in the general education classroom.
If this can be alleviated with the proper sensory input, these students can build better relationships with peers and receive more of the academic instruction they need.
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