SENSORY INTEGRATION
ORTON GILLINGHAM
MONTESSORI
The video that I linked above references students with autism specifically however, all students can benefit from using a sensory room to get their sensory needs met daily.
Sensory integration is basically used to provide students with their sensory needs and then they are ready to learn. Providing these sensory needs can release untold amounts of benefits for all students to be able to become more successful in the classroom. Not everyone will have access to a sensory room so what do you do?
Teachers can provide flexible seating, physical activity during brain breaks, teach basic yoga moves, provide calming music in the background, and teach students some deep breathing exercises. These are all very inexpensive ways to begin incorporating sensory techniques into your daily teaching schedule.
Design a calming area in your classroom where any student can go at any time when they feel the need to calm themselves. Provide soft seating, stuffed animals, lowered lighting, and a little bit of privacy and you have a calming area in your very own classroom.
Sensory integration needs to include these three aspects: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. When we provide students with opportunities to include these senses during their learning then their retention of that learning increases.
When we take this a step further and also include things that are found in nature and our everyday lives, we increase the benefit of sensory integration. Students are allowed to explore and learn at their own pace during their sensory time. Real-world items also increase their social learning and imaginative play. When children are playing, they are still learning if they are provided with good tools.
I came away from reading about this subject wondering about how much time do we really invest in sparking our students' curiosity and realizing how important that this is to our students.
There are many inexpensive ways to begin using sensory type materials in your teaching. By creating sensory bags containing hair gel & glitter, flour & water, glue & glitter, rice & beans, sand & marbles, etc. The list of materials that you can use is only limited by your imagination.
I encourage any teacher to try to integrate one new sensory activity into your classroom while teaching or before teaching and see what results you get from your students. I know they will become more engaged and excited about....What are we going to do today? That's always a great thing!
Thanks for reading,
Shannon
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