St. Mary School. (Supplied by M. Appleton)

By David Opinko

“Sensory room” being built at Taber’s St. Mary School

Dec 18, 2019 | 11:09 AM

TABER, AB – Overwhelmed students in Taber will soon have a new way of calming themselves down and back into a mindset where they can learn.

Associate Principal Mark DeJong says staff at St. Mary School are working on creating a sensory room.

“It’s basically designed as a room that can be used to help students self-regulate using their senses, so appealing to sights, touch, smell, feel with a variety of therapeutic things.”

He explains that the school is looking to purchase softer flooring, different styles of adjustable lighting, puzzles, and music players.

A key feature will be what DeJong calls a “bubble tube”.

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“I think it’s about six feet tall, and basically, it’s a tube that can go different LED colours and has bubbles running through it. We surround it by mirrors so it sort of adds to this kind of sensory piece in terms of what you see and what you can focus on when you’re overwhelmed.”

While students with autism and other sensory disabilities will certainly benefit from the inclusion of this room, it can be used to help any vulnerable students.

Anxiety is another issue that many youths struggle with.

“Most people have a sensory fidget about themselves that they are able to self-regulate, but we find more and more that students struggle with that and it’s not something that’s directly taught, so part of our programming at the school is to help students find that and be able to bring themselves into that state, so it could be for anyone who’s just having an off day or for kids who have autism.”

The Community Foundation of Lethbridge and Southwestern Alberta presented the school with a cheque for $4,600 last week that DeJong says will help in purchasing the bubble tube and other items.

He estimates that they will need around $5,600 to finish putting the sensory room together.

It should be completed by mid-to-late February 2020.

Other schools in the Holy Spirit district such as St. Catharine School in Picture Butte and St. Patrick in Taber already have sensory rooms. So far, DeJong claims that they have been successful.

As of the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year, St. Mary School had 226 students enrolled between Grades 6-12.