I want to transform my classroom into like a sensory room. I heard lava lamps help with focusing/ classical music/ I am an LD teacher, what type of sensory things could I do to hep students focus more?
Minimal wall decor. Avoid extremely bright colors and busy patterns. Have places in the room where students can opt to go work independently when they feel distracted. Study carrels work well. Make sure your tables are low enough that students can set their feet on the floor. Ask your custodians to lower them if necessary. Or, as an alternate, tape together a stack of phone books for them to set their feet on. Have noise minimizing headsets available for students to wear when it gets loud. That's all I have off the top of my head. Talk to your OT for more ideas, especially regarding specific students that you and the OT will work with. I get a lot of ideas from my OT.
Are you sure you won't have high functioning autism in your classroom, along with LD? My caseload has both because they are grouped according to academic ability, not SPED descriptor. If you create too much of an atmosphere for students with ADHD, it can become a distraction for students in the Autism spectrum. And not all your LD students have ADHD ... so, instead of transforming the entire classroom, you may want to think about individual needs.
Have sensory "breaks" so you can put the items away after you're finished with them. That way they aren't out all of the time.
A couple of things I've done in the past: I had a girl who had a huge writing assignment to complete and you could tell that it was looking like an infinity of time to her before she'd be done so I set a timer at 2 minutes and told her about it and asked her to write as fast as she could for 2 minutes. She was amazed by how much she got done in that time so I let her have the timer and she completed the assignment in record time. I have them use graph paper for math assignments to keep it all lined up and I cut an index card in half lengthwise and have them use it while reading or otherwise trying to pinpoint a spot in the text.
Minimize distractions as much as possible. Give frequent breaks. Have a visual checklist for assignment completion. Use graphic organizers. Most students on my campus with ADHD either have extended time or shortened assignments as accommodations. As long as they can show mastery, it's okay if they complete 10 questions instead of 20, etc.
Yes I like this too and I've used any kind of manipulative--really anything you have on hand like silly putty or play-dough. In fact since I have ADD myself I almost always have silly putty in my purse. Doodling can be good for some kids too but not so much for others.
