A sensory room is a specially designed area that offers students a variety of sensory experiences. It serves as an accommodation for some students and may also be known as a Multi-Sensory Room (MSE) or Snoozelen Room. Sensory rooms first emerged in the Netherlands...
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5 Strategies for Creating “Relaxation Stations” to Help Students Self-Regulate
Designing classrooms to maximize support for self-regulation skills and reduce over-stimulation for some students can benefit the entire class. Providing reasonable accommodations can make all the difference in helping students reach educational milestones and bolster...
Flexible Seating in Classrooms: A Paradigm Shift Towards a More Engaging Learning Environment
By adopting flexible seating, we are taking a significant step towards creating a more dynamic, inclusive, and effective learning environment for all students. Several years ago, I was helping in a Learning Center with elementary students who needed additional support...
Designing Classrooms to Support Neurodiversity
There is strong research support indicating that the way the classroom environment is arranged can greatly impact the learning outcomes of students with autism. Individuals on the autism spectrum are often referred to as neurodiverse. Children with autism struggle...
Let the Sunshine In: Daylight Harvesting to Energize Students and Teachers
Natural daylighting offers a multipurpose solution to districts by helping buildings adapt to increasingly urgent environmental initiatives while simultaneously boosting the performance of students and teachers. With the implementation of early design factors or the...
How Innovative Classroom Design Can Boost Social-Emotional Learning
Recent studies have shed light on the profound impact that classroom environments can have on students' Social Emotional Learning (SEL). SEL encompasses vital life skills such as self-awareness, emotion management, social awareness, goal setting, empathy, building...
The Critical Role of Visual Design in K-12 Classrooms
How Visual Design Impacts Learning Does the visual design and layout of a classroom hold any significance? Does it influence a student's ability to learn? I can confidently affirm that it does, and I have a compelling personal experience backed up by research to...
The Classroom of the Future: Designs that Support Flexible, Mobile, and Collaborative Tech Tools
Classrooms have had to evolve quickly in the last few years to meet the changing demands placed on teaching and learning during the pandemic. As we move into a post-COVID world, school leaders are rethinking what the classroom of the future needs to look like to...
Creating the Calm Classroom: 3 Design Strategies to Promote Student Well-Being
As more students struggle with anxiety and depression, schools are prioritizing mental health supports. Small improvements in the design of physical spaces in schools can make enormous differences in enhancing student well-being. We often underestimate the ways in...
What are Schools Doing to Improve Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)?
Improving ventilation in schools is one of the most important ways to reduce the spread of COVID. Yet, half of all school districts have not moved past the IAQ planning stages. With government funds available, now is the time to move forward. When I was in college, I...