The Multi-Sensory Classroom

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  The Multi-Sensory Classroom provides educational services, therapy, and medical care daily to a population of six students who are medically fragile. Our classroom is titled the Multi-Sensory Classroom, which stands for Multiple-Disabilities/Severe Sensory Impairments. Most of the students in our classroom are non-ambulatory (wheelchair bound), non-verbal, are tube-fed, and some have visual and/or hearing impairments. Our class has a one-to-one ratio; meaning for every student there is a paraprofessional staff member who cares for them, along with one classroom teacher. A day in the Multi-Sensory classroom includes personal hygienic care, range of motion and massage activities, constant positioning changes, medication dispensing/feeding, and various sensory-integration activities during each academic task. Our focus here in the Multi-Sensory Classroom is to provide top-notch medical care while also using different therapy techniques to keep our students at their maximum health and comfort levels. We incorporate as much teaching as possible intertwined into our daily routine, highlighting skills such as communication for our students, and awareness of themselves, their names, and their environment. Group lessons, swimming hydrotherapy, horticulture, daily circle time, service learning groups and individualized occupational, physical and speech therapy make for a busy schedule each week in the Multi-Sensory Classroom here at SMASE.