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Respect all — Always try hard — Make safe and healthy choices — Enjoy life

To advance the education, care and wellbeing of the pupils at the schools, to advance the education of other members of the community.

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Modifying the environment

Recently, we have all been spending a lot more time at home than normal and we are trying to come up with new ways to keep ourselves entertained. You or your child may decide that you would like to complete a small at-home project.

 

Over the last few months, many of us have been looking at our homes and wondering if they are the way that we would like them to be… You may have asked yourself questions like:

 

“Does this room make my child feel relaxed, or stressed?”

“Does my child enjoy spending time in this room, or do they avoid it?”

“Is my child safe in this room, or do they often hurt themselves on something in here?”

 

It is important that we feel calm and safe at home.

However, sometimes we can’t relax because we dislike the way that a room looks, smells or sounds. We all have our own preferences – it is important to remember that this is very individual and you will need to explore it with your child.

Some people are more sensitive than others to certain sensory inputs (vision, sound, smell, touch). For those people who are very sensitive to their environments, this can lead to behavioural outbursts.

By making small changes to the environment, you may expect to see one or more of these benefits for your child (and yourself!):

  • Improved regulatory state (the way we feel)
  • Improved concentration and attention
  • Improved social interactions
  • Improved sleep
  • Reduced behavioural outbursts
  • Improved safety
  • Improved physical comfort.

 

Here are our suggestions for how you could go about doing this. There are also some advice sheets for various daily living activities.  

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