About the Project

At Chaparral Academy of Technology primary school, we have 351 general education students and approximately 100 students with disabilities ranging from pre-Kindergarten to 5th grade. A sensory room is an invaluable resource for students with special needs. It can be a place to help students calm down, develop strategies to self-regulate, an opportunity to learn to center themselves and reduce their anxiety. Often, students with special needs are overstimulated by audio and visual input that can interfere with their ability to focus. These students may also have proprioceptive and vestibular needs that cause them to crave physical sensations to center themselves. With a sensory room available on campus, these students will have a resource to increase their knowledge of how it feels to be calm and focused so they can be better prepared for learning and interacting with others.