October 31, 2024
from Jennifer Le Varge, Lower School director and director of the Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning
Editor’s Note: Periodically, you will find a guest Head’s Message here from members of the administrative team. We hope you will enjoy reading their thoughts and reflections about life at MPA.
Sir Ken Robinson’s prolific Ted Talk, “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” exquisitely describes the traditional school model’s habit of separating the head from the body. In other words, traditional schooling is unevenly focused on academic skills, leaving out the other side of the human development coin: the body and the senses. The integration of the mind and the body is imperative to the development of a human being and underscores our whole child approach at Mounds Park Academy. Thanks to MPA’s Building Opportunities for Learning Distinction (BOLD) Innovation Fund that families supported during the 2022 Spring Auction, and along with our learning specialist and PreK-5 school counselor, we were able to make the sensory room initiative a reality in the spring of 2024. Repurposing a corner of the Lower School workroom last year, the counselor and I offered short, daily “sensory breaks” for students in the Lower School to find emotional regulation and calm during the bright and busy school days. Since then, we have hired Mx. Lewis as of this September, our student success teaching assistant based in the sensory room who collaborates with the teachers, counselor, and learning specialist in the Lower School.
But you might be asking, what exactly is sensory processing and what is a sensory room? With October marked as Sensory Processing Awareness Month, this is a timely question. And here is where our “seven senses” come in. Yes, we all learned in elementary school that there are five human senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. However, did you know that researchers have more recently discovered two additional senses? Those include the proprioceptive and vestibular senses.
Proprioceptive Input
There is a system of sensors in our bodies that are responsible for something called proprioception. This sense allows the brain to understand where the body is in relation to other objects and how to move, or “where my body ends and the rest of the world begins.” Have you ever noticed that you can feel when you are getting too close to something? That is your proprioceptive system at work. When this sense is hyposensitive, you may find that the person is always on the move. When they are hypersensitive, they may appear clumsy as they have difficulty locating their body in space. People with differences processing proprioceptive input might:
- seek out lots of pressure like bear hugs or heavy blankets;
- prefer a large amount of personal space;
- develop a sense of personal space and bump into people or objects frequently; and
- use lots of pressure when doing fine motor tasks like writing or erasing .
(Source: Child Mind Institute)
Vestibular Input
Like the proprioceptive system, the vestibular system is a group of receptors mostly in the inner ear, that help the brain with information about movement and head position. This affects balance and coordination. People with differences processing vestibular input might:
- prefer to jump around on the ground or on a trampoline;
- love to ride roller coasters;
- feel calmer after swinging;
- get up to move around at unexpected times;
- rock in their chair; and
- take more time with or may not prefer tasks requiring precise balance like climbing or standing on one foot.
(Source: Child Mind Institute)
In the sensory room with Mx. Lewis, and in our Lower School classrooms with our homeroom and specialist teachers, you will now find more tools for sensory integration such as weighted blankets, trampolines, and tactile fidget tools, balance boards, body socks, tents, kinetic sand, essential oils, soothing lights and light filters. These learning tools help all students find success in their educational journeys.
Sensory processing is complex, requiring the brain and body to work together via the seven senses, connected through the central nervous system. The central nervous system is connected to every part of the body by 43 pairs of nerves. There are nearly 45 miles of nerves running through our bodies. As you can imagine, within such a complex system, there are bound to be differences in processing when we think of young children in Lower School who are going through the most rapid stage of development of the entirety of human life span. Furthermore, in the typical school day, the students face challenges to their growing fine motor skills (reading, writing, math), gross motor skills (physical education, recess, and traveling around a big school building) and emotional regulation (following directions, impulse control, friendships, and conflict resolution). Sensory needs change over time as children learn and grow. This is why we have invested in our sensory room and supports at MPA—because every child deserves support in their continued growth, and a healthy mind-brain connection supports the advancement of all academic skills.
