What Is the Sensory Motor Training Lab?
With a grant from Hoblitzelle Foundation, we at Achievement Center of Texas rebuilt our therapy room into a Sensory Motor Training Lab. Sensory experiences include touch, movement, body awareness, sight, sound and the pull of gravity.
Why Is Special Needs Sensory Motor Training Important?
Sensory integration involves the brain organizing and interpreting sensory experiences. This sensory integration provides a crucial foundation for later, more complex learning and behavior.
Our Sensory Motor Training Lab has unique equipment to help the students identify and work toward overcoming their sensory deficiencies.
What’s Included in the Sensory Motor Training Lab?
Vestibular Swing
This mechanism helps our students who have gait issues or trouble balancing. We have various mats that can be hooked up to the swing for our students to sit on. This allows them a safe environment in which to experience the sensation of falling and experiment with balancing. The attachments also help students develop reflexes, spatial relationships and much more.
Sound Beam
The Sound Beam helps students make their own music through simple movements. This machine works great for our physically disabled students who have limited mobility. With it, they can create full concert-like experiences just by moving a finger or tapping a foot in front of the sensor.
Musical Squares
The Musical Squares machine has an array of colored squares that light up. Students associate the colorful squares with sounds or short melodies. Pairing the lighted colors with the sounds or songs creates a kind of matching game for our students. This is game not only relaxes our students but also engages them.
Projector
Depicted as the main image for this page, the projector in our Sensory Motor Training Lab does not play movies or TV shows. Instead, we use it to display soothing moving scenes onto white boards. This projector works great for our students who needs a calm, quiet place to relax and wind down from aggressive outbursts.
Fiber-optic Lights Spray
At ACT, we try to promote visual stimming over tactile stimming, which can be socially inappropriate or disruptive. We encourage the former through our multi-colored rope lights. Students can play with the lights or wave them gently in their peripheral vision in a calming way.