Making a sensory friendly room is easy and fun and so important. Researchers suggest that the bedroom should be a place where we feel peaceful and associate feelings of peace and comfort. This is the same reason why we, as adults, are told to not bring work into the bedroom, because our brains make connections from tense environments and it has very real effects on our ability to rest.
A few months ago Josh started using his room to flew when he felt overwhelmed. This is a great thing when we think about it, we want our children to have that safe place to go to when the world is overwhelming. The problem was, his room was not a safe place.
His room was full of medical equipment, electrical cords, and it was not a sensory friendly room. So I began my research. For weeks I thought up ideas on what to move, how to make the room safer, and how to make it a room that would be calming for my son. So here it is... Keep in mind these are all ideas and every person and child is different, so what works for one kid may not for another. What you see here is a lot of my son, grouping calming with what he loves. Enjoy...
1) First, I needed to move all things with cords. When my son is overwhelmed he can throw things (things that break), so they needed to be out of reach. I put shelves up (out of reach), for all the items that have cords. For Josh those included his humidifier, a fan (he uses to sleep), a white noise machine (also for sleep), his essential oils diffuser, a lamp (with blue light bulb), video monitor and CD player. I used a cord cover to run an extension cord up the wall so he cannot pull anything down, and then plugged each item into that power cord. As far as the items the ones I wanted to point out were the fan, diffuser, white noise machine, and lamp. The fan really helps Josh sleep, he likes to be cooler and the air seems to help him relax. The white noise machine helps Josh sleep too, since children with autism tend to have trouble with sleep rhythms the white noise helps to maintain REM sleep. Josh uses a diffuser with Lavender, Breath, and a few wood oils that help with rest. Lastly, the lamp, all lights in Josh's room use a blue lightbulb, which also helps to facilitate sleep rhythms as well as promote calm feelings for children with ASD or SPD.
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2) Next, I removed his writing desk and recliner. It made my heart a little sad because I feel like a writing desk is a right of passage, but for Josh it was taking up room and was just something to climb on. Josh's dresser moved out and was replaced with under the bed bins. You will also note below that the curtains were changed out.
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3) Next, you will notice the blue walls, as many of us know blue is a very calming color. But to lighten it up I spray painted his cork boards to give some color to the room. The yellow is a calm color, that promotes enthusiasm and optimism.
4) The white ceiling had to go, white walls are actually very anxiety producing. So we went with a light blue and some clouds to get some lightness back in the room.
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5) Creating a 'Crash' corner... It is very important for many kids with ASD or SPD to have the a place they can jump and crash. So the recliner was removed and in its place I got an oversized beanbag chair. This is perfect because he can jump, crash or jump into it when he just needs to get that movement out. He also can get more sensory input when sitting in the chair, since it puts pressure on all sides.
6) Back to the ceiling, in addition to the sky ceiling the light bulbs here were again changed out to blue lights.
7) The curtains were a big change. These star curtains were from Amazon and are blackout curtains that actually have starts cut out to let little star shaped light in. Light is a big issue for children with ASD or SPD. Bright lights can be very overwhelming and hard to process, particularly if they are already having a hard time and needing to calm themselves. So blackout curtains are a must in our house. We had to remove the spider-man curtains because, cool as spidy is, it is very loud and not very calming. These curtains are plan grey with no colors, and the little light that comes in is very soft and lights the room just enough without having to open them for light.
8) Again, a dresser is not always safe for kids with ASD or SPD since it can be climbed on. We open to remove most all furniture from the room, and if he did not need the hospital bed I actually would have preferred to have a mattress on the floor. But since there is a bed frame I put the clothes under the bed in place of the dresser. You will notice the spiderman weighted blanket which is helpful for sleep and sensory issues. I love ours, it has a very soft underside, with spiderman on the top. But it is not too loud or crazy busy. The other big change her is the bed sheets, we took away the characters and put some plan flannel sheets where are soft and more sensory friendly.
It definitely was a huge transformation, but from the furniture swaps to adding shelves, to so color changes, it truly made a huge difference. That being said, making your child's room sensory friendly does not have to be expensive. For the paint, curtains, bean bag chair, shelves, cord protector, bedsheets and tools I stayed under a $200 budget (half of which was the bean bag chair). So if you are looking for some quick easy tips...
- less furniture is better
- go with warm colors (blues, earthy greens, soft yellows)
- If in doubt, black it out... black out curtains are a life saver
- Go Blue... switching to blue lights is cheap and easy and make s big difference.
- Think safety.. cords, outlets and other dangerous things need to be considered.
- Weighted blanket is worth its weight in gold...
- You can keep the kiddie fun (in our case super heroes), but less is more, keep it calm.
So there you go... here is out transformation, hope it helps anyone needing ideas!!
