Typical classroom accommodations for sensory processing disorder

What Accommodations Can The School Do For Your Sensory Sensitive Child?

If you’ve read my article about the differences between an IEP and a 504, you might have questions about some typical accommodations each plan could offer. If your child is on an IEP, the accommodations they receive for their specialized services may be a little different than the accommodations I will discuss down below. These accommodations can be used for just a 504 plan or in conjunction with their IEP services.

Most kids with sensory processing issues can experience sensory overload at school resulting in unwanted behaviors. These behaviors can look like “bad behaviors” but are really the result of their systems shutting down or overloading from stimuli. These “bad behaviors” can be curved and even stopped by providing the correct accommodations to help your child’s system from ever being overloaded in the first place. Accommodations specific to your child can help them maintain focus, remain calm, and be successful in school.

Basic Accommodations to Calm Throughout the Day

1. Walking Breaks: kids can either have scheduled times they take a lap around the building, or if they know their body well enough, have a discreet way to let the teacher know they need to take a walk
2. Fidgets: playing with fidgets at their desk is a great way to help gets calm down, ease anxieties, and get some sensory stimulation in without distracting others. Check out this article for best classroom fidgets
3. Cheweys: providing safe objects to chew on or other ways to get their oral stimulation in is an easy way to help kids seeking oral stimulation
4. Push-ups/jumping jacks: A quick 5 will help stimulate or calm any child who either needs stimulation to “wake up” or the kid who can’t sit still for long periods of time
5. Heads up: Most kids benefit from a “heads up” when change is about to happen, but kids with sensory issues really need this before fire drills, lock downs, or anything that may be loud, scary, or out of the ordinary
6. Special Seating: Sensory kids may need to sit in the front for that extra eye contact, or in the back to ease anxieties about what is happening around them
7. Lunch Bunch: Some kids cannot handle the noises, smells, and intensity of the cafeteria, which may set them off for the afternoon. Providing a more calming space with music, dim lighting, and a few special friends may help

Listening Accommodations

1. Wiggle Seats and Cushions: The school can provide appropriate wiggle seats and cushions to help your child be able to sit and listen better
2. Weighted Lap Pad: Some kids really benefit from feeling deep pressure. It makes them feel grounded and safe. They understand where their body is in space. The school can provide a weighted lap pad to help
3. Fidgets: Fidgets fall under many categories and benefit in lots of areas. This is an easy accommodation to increase listening time
4. Timer: Having a timer visible for students to see how much longer they need to really focus can ease anxieties for some kids. Knowing they only have to make it two more minutes until a walking break can get them through

Tests, Assignments, and Organization

1. Tests: Children with slow processing would benefit from extended time and taking tests in a separate area or room from the class
2. Typed Responses: Kids who struggle with handwriting might benefit from typing their responses
3. Scribed Responses: Kids that find writing difficult may also benefit from having a scribe to write for them
4. Visual Schedule: Seeing a schedule of their day may help organize their thoughts and ease anxieties
5. Organizational Check-ins: Having a teacher/assistant check in before and after school can greatly increase productivity. Check back packs, go over what is due, help create and check folder/binder system, check agenda that everything is written down
6. Book Back Ups: Having two sets of books, one at home and one at school, can relieve the anxieties and stresses of having to remember bringing it all back and forth
7. Visual Accommodations: Kids, like my daughter, who wear glasses or are in vision therapy may need yellow colored paper to reduce eye stress. They may benefit from a slant board for reading and writing and reading guides to help them keep track of the line they are reading

Resources

Every child is different in what they need to help them. Listen to your child, watch what helps them at home, and suggest your own accommodations that work for them! This book, Section 504: Key Information and Classroom Accommodations (2nd Edition), provides lots of ideas that you may have not thought about. Also, check out my parenting resources in helping you raise your strong willed child!