Creating a Sensory Room at Home

If your child has ever had therapy outside the home, you are probably familiar with sensory rooms.

Sensory rooms are basically spaces filled with lights, toys, and tools in which children with Autism, ADD/ADHD, Sensory Processing Disorder,or otherwise can safely explore and engage with their senses.

They can include everything from calming items like bubble tube columns, fiber optics, hammock swings, and projector lights, as well as items that encourage activity, like crash pads, trampolines, climbing walls, and ball pits.

Because sensory rooms can be a great strategy for behavior intervention, or just to provide some much needed movement breaks, many special needs families are taking the leap and building them in their own homes. But is it the right decision for your family?

In this article, I'll share the top 10 reasons you should consider building a sensory room at home. I'll also show you why a sensory room doesn't have to be as expensive or difficult as you might have thought (hint: it doesn't need to be a full room!). Finally, I'll share perhaps the best bang-for-your-buck sensory item you can buy so you can start crafting your child's own sensory space today!

There is a good reason sensory rooms have been recommended by occupational therapists for so long. Since sensory rooms are personalized to the likes and needs of the individual, they tend to have high therapeutic success rates with little risk of negative outcomes.

At the end of the day, sensory rooms are there to make sure children meet their unique sensory needs in a safe and supervised manner - and this can't really be a bad thing.

While no therapy can claim 100% effectiveness in teaching children with Autism, ADHD/ADD, and Sensory Processing Disorder how to handle all the complexities of the real world, creating a safe, explorative, and judgment-free environment for them to "practice" in can certainly be a step in the right direction.

In other words: sensory rooms can provide a means of "training" for your child to learn how to deal with real-life encounters in a healthy way.

Since children with sensory processing difficulties have struggled processing information from their environments and bodies all their lives, they often lag behind their peers in terms of acquiring essential life skills. That's why creating a playful space to train these basic skills can be a great idea for special needs parents.

Overall, sensory rooms can be an excellent way to stimulate skills development in a supportive, playful environment.

Meltdowns can be one the hardest things to deal with as a parent of a child with sensory needs. That's why it is always a good idea to have strategies in place to not only make sure your child's emotional and sensory needs are constantly met, but also to de-escalate if crisis situations do arise.

Just like a student can't learn optimally when he or she is hungry or tired, a child with SPD can't learn optimally when his or her sensory needs aren't being met. That's why more and more schools are building sensory rooms to help special education students learn better. Edutopia's video on Hanover elementary's sensory room below does an excellent job explaining some of the academic benefits.

Sensory rooms are a unique therapy in that they give the child complete control over the sensory environment. 

Not only can this increase feelings of confidence and independence - crucial building blocks for self-esteem - but it may also encourage children to come out of their social shells and communicate more.

A moving example of this can be found in Edutopia's school sensory room video. When a student with autism was asked how the sensory room made him feel, he replied with just one word: "happy".

Consider discussing with your OT whether a home-based sensory room could be right for your family.

Unfortunately, the term "sensory room" can be a bit of misnomer, because a sensory room does NOT need to be an entire room in your house! In fact, it doesn't need to by any more than a small space already inside your home.

Finally, a cursory Google search online for "sensory room" might lead you to believe that robbing a bank is the only way to afford one. But realize that this is far from the truth!

Imagine what kind of sensory space you can make!

I hope by now I've convinced you of the value of making a sensory room for your child with sensory needs.

But how do you get started?

Well, at SensoryMoon, our mission is to help as many families of children with special needs build sensory rooms (or should I say, sensory "spaces" :-)) for their loved ones.

Unlike other special needs companies who might only cater to the very high end, our motto is that everyone deserves a sensory room --- no matter what size their budget might be.

In fact, even if you don't purchase anything from us, we'll still be here sending you DIY tips so you don't have any excuses for not building a sensory room ;-)

We want to bring the joy of sensory rooms into as many special needs households as possible.

And that's why I want to give you a very special opportunity right now.

Hey guys, whether or not you end up making a sensory room at home for your child, I appreciate you reading through this whole article. We are really excited to see how many sensory rooms we can help build, so if you think the information in this article could benefit anyone else, feel free to share it :-)

And as always, I'm here to help if you have any questions.

All the best,

Moiz Rauf
SensoryMoon.com

P.S. Remember, even if you don't think you can commit giving up a whole room for a sensory room, our bubble tube is a GREAT item to put in the corner of any existing space you have.

So be sure to hop on over to our product page if you haven't already and read some of our numerous 5-star reviews. They might give you some inspiration to set up your own sensory corner :-)