We work with children receiving special education services all the way from PreK to 12th grade. Our group of students are certainly diverse with a large array of strengths and needs.
Our students are often faced with huge challenges at school and at home.
Yet come to school with a smile and a willingness to keep pushing through the challenges they face. Some have fine motor deficits, others have gross motor deficits, some have difficulty with regulation and attention, and many have all of the above as well as other challenges.
Our students also have the best sense of humor, are working hard on changing their growth mindset, are always building their resiliency, and are learning to be kind peers.
They unknowingly teach our larger student body about inclusion, acceptance, and empathy. They are an integral part of our school system and highly deserving of every tool we can give them to continue their success.
My Project
Many of our students have difficulty with sensory processing and self-regulation. Imagine trying to focus and learn when the clothes on your body feel too scratchy, the hum of the lights is too loud, the nonstop chatter in your brain won't stop, and you just can't stop wiggling.
In occupational therapy we provide students tools and strategies to help them be able to integrate their sensory processing systems, as well as to be able to focus easier on their academics.
One of those tools that can be extremely helpful for many students is a Steamroller. A Steamroller is much like Temple Grandin's famous squeeze machine that she developed to give herself deep pressure when stressed, anxious, or unable to self-regulate. A Steamroller is able to provide that deep pressure our students need to be able to be calm and to focus. In addition it also provides the ability to work on motor planning skills, body awareness, and shoulder stability.
We work across a variety of schools within our school district that have a variety of Intensive Support Programs (ISP) which include behavioral programs, life skills programs, and autism programs. We currently have Steamrollers in a handful of our programs and have seen an improvement in children being able to self-advocate their needs and request the Steamroller when they first start to feel upset, rather than erupting into a full meltdown. We also have seen an improvement in our students being able to return to academic or non-preferred tasks after using the Steamroller. Our goal is to have a Steamroller accessible for each of our ISP classrooms, hence this DonorsChoose request.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Drinkwater and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
