Chartered Accountants Haines Watts based in Southernhay Exeter selected West of England School & College for young people with little or no sight based on Topsham Road as their first Charity of the Year in 2011. Through a series of small networking events and fundraisers they raised £2k at the end of the year. Ben de Cruz Senior Partner for Haines Watts asked the school if they could look at a project or something tangible for these funds. The WOEC created a new sensory room out of what used to be the old Braille room. The £2k covered the refurbishment and a new wheelchair access created as well as all the equipment.
Ben de Cruz joined Caroline Burkie Head of Fundraising and PR and Sara Cross Occupational Therapist together with three of the young learners to view the new facility.
Sara Cross, Occupational Therapist, West of England School and College
“We are thrilled to have this new facility to allow increased access to sensory integration assessment and therapy for School pupils.
The current room that is used is highly subscribed to and is within the college and therefore the school pupils are regularly without a much needed slot in the sensory room.
Due to the Haines Watts money we now have another room equipped for this purpose for the younger learners which is fantastic.
During each moment of everyday we all take in a continual stream of information simultaneously through our different senses; vision; hearing; touch; taste; smell and also the sense of balance and movement (vestibular) and where we are in space (proprioception).
Sensory Integration is the process which “puts it all together” allowing us to sort out and use this information so that we can engage in everyday life easily and automatically.
Often our learners have difficulty processing these sensations and that is where the use of sensory integration therapy comes in.
Learners are assessed and a “sensory diet” is developed. A sensory diet is a carefully designed personalized activity plan that provides the sensory input that a person needs to stay focussed and organized throughout the day.
Just as you may jiggle your knee or chew gum to stay awake or soak in a hot bath to unwind children need to engage in stabilizing, focussing activities too.
The great thing about ‘sensory diets’ is that their effects are usually immediate and cumulative
Activities that perk up the child or calm him down are not only effective in the moment they actually help to restructure the child’s nervous system so that with frequent access to these activities he is better able to:-
- Tolerate sensations and situations that he finds challenging
- Regulate his alertness and attention span
- Limit sensory seeking and avoiding behaviours
- Handle transitions with less stress
- This room is incredibly important and will enable the younger pupils at WESC to have their own “indoor playground” to carry out their sensory diet
- I very much hope that Haines Watts will be pleased with this conversion as without it the sensory integration room would not exist.
EQUIPMENT WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO PURCHASE WITH HAINES WATTS MONEY:
- Weighted blankets – Feels like a warm hug and helps to increase proprioception and helps to calm
- Chewellery and Chew noodles – for children who explore with their mouth- this kit is used to increase awareness of the mouth and provide additional proprioception to the jaw
- Great lumps ball and giant stress ball and squeezy fidget toys – heavy and squeezy, calming and a fidget toy. Sometimes a child is better able to concentrate if they have a small toy in their pocket to fiddle with to help them stay focussed – just as we might doodle or play with a paperclip
- Soft pressure brush – to use with children to provide tactile stimulation
- Stretchy fish tunnel – A stretchy material tunnel to crawl through providing opportunities to strengthen through hard work – improve core stability, breathing, focus and attention
- Stretcheze in two sizes for bigger or smaller people - provide body awareness and increased proprioception, pushing against the resistance of the stretchy materials provides opportunity to improve co-ordination and strength as well as being calming and organising
- Spinning cone – this is great fun and generates and encourages balance, co-ordination and mobility
- Physio mat – to provide a soft surface for some floor activities
- Large physio roll – to use with a weighted blanket and increase deep pressure, playing games such as human hot dogs!”
Photos courtesy of Mark Campbell - www.onthemarkphotography.co.uk
