Heather Latter
If you walk into Cheri Whatley’s Early Years classroom at St. Michael’s School, you might notice the lights are turned down low and a calming fragrance being diffused.
This classroom—as well as other “quiet” spaces being created within the schools of the Northwest Catholic District School Board—are part of a project focusing on self-regulation of students.
“What we are starting to do this year in all of the schools within the board is to put together a sensory room,” said Lisa Latimer, the special education resource teacher at St. Francis School here.
“We’re focusing on self-regulation with our students so that’s being able to understand their emotions, how to control them, what their triggers are, and what strategies they can use to bring themselves down to where they can learn or be stimulated to be more aware and alert,” she explained.
“So that’s kind of our focus this year and in order to aid in that, we have set up these sensory rooms,” Latimer added, noting some people refer to them as “quiet” spaces like she typically does.
Latimer and Sue Vandenbrand, her counterpart at St. Michael’s, have set up quiet spaces for students to utilize if they need a few minutes away from the classroom to regroup.
Each school also has a “marker” classroom, such as Whatley’s, which involves learning about self-regulation and putting some of the strategies into practice to study the benefits.
“I want it to be a good place that they want to come, feel relaxed, and able to focus om their school work or to calm down,” Latimer said about the quiet space tucked away in the corner of her special education classroom.
With all of the rooms at the school already being utilized, Latimer created the space in her classroom—sectioning it off with a book shelf and dividing unit.
And she put a lot of care into transforming the space.
“The thought was a lot of natural elements, not a lot of colour,” she remarked.
“We want it to be fairly soothing.
“Even as we enter the room, we got curtains to cover up the resources that line the walls,” Latimer noted.
“It can be very in-your-face when you come into the room, so we just covered it with curtains.”
Latimer said she brought in some driftwood while other people also brought in items to help create an inviting, calming space.
“People bringing in branches and donating lights,” she noted, referring to the twinkle lights that provide some low lighting.
Latimer noted the board’s mental health lead, Riley Keast, brought over a tent and pea pod (that is being used as a “canoe”), as well as sensory items and books.
“When I started to set this space up, I had these camp chairs, so I added them and thought it’s looking more like a camping area,” she said.
“So I thought that might be a way of drawing the older kids in and making them feel that they wanted to be in that space.
“So I ran with the camping theme,” Latimer continued. “I got some lanterns and someone brought in the little orange lights so that it looks like a fire.
“We had some trees in the library, so we pulled a couple of them into here and added more twinkle lights, curtains, and natural baskets to keep the items in.”
Latimer and school secretary Laura Haner also painted a mural along one of the walls of the space to mimic a sunset that one might see if they were camping by the lake.
“It just gives you the sense, when you are sitting here, of being at the lake and just that quiet, calming effect,” she explained, noting there also is relaxing music that plays softly in the background.
“It’s a combination of nature sounds and soft music,” Latimer said. “There’s a stress relief and a relaxation one.
“They will often be playing in here and it’s up to the students whether they want to listen to it,” she added.
“It’s whatever they are comfortable with when they are here.”
Since setting up the space in early October, Latimer said it’s been utilized by the students.
“The kids seem to really enjoy being in the space and we often have students who want to come in here to work,” she remarked.
“I encourage that, as well, because I want them to feel like it’s their space and they can use it when they need to.”
Vandenbrand said the space at St. Michael’s, which is set up similarly to Latimer’s, also is used frequently—despite the younger age of the students there.
In fact, she said it’s primarily used by the Early Years students so far.
“Lots of little kids can’t self-regulate,” she explained, noting they don’t recognize their emotions.
This is why in the classrooms, they are talking about the “Zones of Regulation” to help even the youngest students understand how they are feeling.
The “Zones of Regulation” incorporate colours with certain emotions.
As such, “blue” is sad, sick, tired, bored, and moving slowly while “yellow” is frustrated, worried, silly/wiggly, excited, and loss of some control.
When students are in the “red” zone, they are mad/angry, terrified, yelling/hitting, elated, and out of control.
But when they’re in the “green” zone, they are happy, calm, feeling okay, focused, and ready to learn.
Vandenbrand said the hope is the students will learn strategies to deal with their emotions and ultimately be able to spend more time in the “green” zone.
Latimer noted students can request to visit the quiet space, or a teacher or EA might suggest it.
“The teacher or EA can see that the student is getting over-excited and aren’t able to focus at the moment, and some time to calm down would benefit them,” she explained.
“So before it gets too far that they are feeling out of control, we want to catch them when we can still have them come and have this be effective for them.
“So with the focus of self-regulation, it’s for them to recognize those signs and when they are feeling that need,” Latimer added.
“They don’t have to come here but this is an option for them.”
Latimer said the room is open to all students in the school, but they have to be supervised by an adult while there.
“Some schools are trying to dedicate a whole room, but right now this was the space that I carved out of what I have a available,” she noted, adding they are looking at expanding the size of the space next year.
Latimer said there’s room off the office that they are working on transitioning into a quiet space while at St. Michael’s, they have some other areas picked out to become quiet spaces, as well.
“Eventually, the hope is it will be incorporated throughout the school,” Vandenbrand said.
Both Vandenbrand and Latimer stressed the quiet spaces are working.
“They are doing what we hoped and that is calming students so they are able to focus and return to class,” Latimer said.
