Sensory Room Pop-Up!
Where Creativity Meets Calm
Where Creativity Meets Calm
Sensory Room Pop-Up: Explore, Experience, Engage
📍ED 104
🗓️ Wednesday, January 8, 2025
⏰ Convocation Lunch; Open until 2 PM
👏🏽 Feedback and Interest Form
This pop-up event offers a chance to explore a sensory room experience, a thoughtfully designed space that promotes relaxation, focus, and emotional well-being. Whether you’re curious about sensory rooms or simply seeking a moment of calm, this is your opportunity to immerse yourself in the benefits these spaces provide.
Learn about ongoing efforts to establish sensory rooms for both students and employees, and discover how these environments, on every Leeward campus, can:
Reduce stress and enhance mental well-being.
Support focus and productivity.
Provide a welcoming, inclusive space for everyone.
Drop in to explore the features of a sensory room, try out sensory tools and resources, and connect with others interested in creating a more supportive campus environment. Together, we can envision a future where sensory rooms become a vital part of campus life.
Sensory Processing challenges may manifest as anxiety, depression, inability to focus, intense emotions, motor impairment, lack of energy, hyperactivity, difficulty with self-regulation, and challenges with reading, writing or listening (Desch & Zimmer, 2012; Thynne, 2021).
Students with access to supports for sensory and emotional regulation experience increased success with memory and cognitive function, information integration, and have higher rates of retention (Braxton et al., 2007).
It is important for everyone, neurodiverse and neurotypical alike, to have spaces on campus where they can de-stress and de-compress, as well as rest and reconnect with themselves. Spaces for sensory breaks on campuses have been shown to increase student retention (Sarrett, 2018).
Neurodiverse students benefit from social spaces to connect with others. Social spaces are among the top requested accommodations.
Enhanced sensory environments in higher education improve student responses and allow them to experience learning efficacy because sensory integration is important to all aspects of life, including learning.
Studies show that sensory rooms are 85% effective in supporting sensory regulation and emotional de-escalation (Nickels, 2023). Supporting Neurodiverse students with opportunities to take a break from the stress of navigating neurotypical spaces and develop friendships can reduce reported feelings of loneliness and anxiety (Fabri et al., 2016).
Sensory spaces provide students with tools and strategies to support learning and knowledge retention. Studies have shown that these spaces meet a wide variety of school needs, beyond their intended use or target audience (Nickels, 2023).
Sensory health reduces anxiety and depression, improves focus, regulates emotions and hyperactivity, improves motor control and energy, and reduces challenges with reading, writing, and listening.