Title: Building Sensory Friendly Classrooms to Support Children with Challenging Behaviors
Author: Rebecca Moyes
Length: 102 pages
Genre: Nonfiction
Publisher/Date: Sensory World/Future Horizons, 2010
Source: Review copy
Over the last few years, I have read a number of books about sensory processing disorder (SPD) . . . books that explain in detail about subtypes of the disorder, books that give practical advice about implementing a sensory diet and dealing with the issues that arise when there is dysfunction and books that share a personal story about someone’s experience with SPD. I have learned a tremendous amount from these books and have even shared some of them previously on this blog.
But what I especially love about Building Sensory Friendly Classrooms is that it looks at the needs of children with SPD and addresses them in the context of the school environment. Even more specifically, it is focused on how SPD can result in behaviors that interfere with a student’s learning or the learning of others, words that will be familiar to anyone who advocates for children in special education.
Building Sensory Friendly Classrooms was written primarily to help teachers and administrators both understand sensory dysfunction and also implement helpful strategies for affected students. The book not only builds the case for incorporating treatments and accommodations for SPD in the school environment; it also gives a clear road map for how to identify and implement those strategies. Best of all, it promotes the use of data collection and analysis to guide the decision-making process.
Throughout the book, Rebecca Moyes (who is a former teacher and current autism consultant, as well as the parent of a child on the spectrum) emphasizes how a sensory diet and other accommodations can be approached within the framework of IDEA.
- For example, a child with a diagnosis of SPD could be found eligible for special education under the category of Other Health Impaired (OHI). From there, an IEP or 504 could be written to include the accommodations and support that is needed.
- Also, a functional behavior assessment (FBA) can be used to examine the cause of the problem behavior in a child with SPD. The information gathered by the FBA, which uses both data collection and anecdotal information to form a picture of what is going on, would then be used to create an intervention plan for the student.
In addition to the discussions of what SPD is and how to use data to make decisions about addressing it, there are also chapters on:
- Strategies to address SPD
- Creating a sensory room within your school or classroom
- Self-stimulatory behavior and self-abusive behavior – the connection to SPD
- Teaching stress management and self-advocacy through behavioral cognitive therapy
The last two chapters of the book give sample language for use in IEPs and 504 plans, as well as an example of a behavior support plan that was written for a student with SPD.
Building Sensory Friendly Classrooms is a tremendous resource for the educational community. In addition to teachers and administrators in both regular and special education, I would recommend this book to parents of children with sensory processing disorder (either by itself or with another disorder such as autism), as well as to those advocating for these children.
I'm a mom with Asperger's raising an amazing son with autism, which means I'm basically the case manager/advocate/cheerleader/chauffeur. The rest of the time, you can usually find me with my nose in a book!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Good review. This looks like a helpful book for my audience as well (churches). Trish – I count on you to find this stuff! Thanks for this review.
Glad you liked it – I’m sure it would be a great resource for them as she includes some practical strategies throughout the book!
This sounds like a great book, thanks for letting us know about it!