Creating Sensory Friendly Classrooms to Promote Language Development

Our Wyckoff Christian Preschool and Kindergarten teachers were excited to welcome Mariela Arcentales, M.S., OTR/L, and Christina Langella MA CCC-SLP to our school to provide us with two professional development sessions titled “Creating Sensory Friendly Classrooms to Promote Language Development”. In part one of the PD, our teachers learned specific strategies that they could use to make the classroom environment sensory-friendly while promoting effective language and communication skills.  The teachers were given an overview of all of the senses as an introduction to a discussion on strategies to strengthen language development within their preschool classrooms. We learned the importance of: allowing silence and space for the children to take their turns, reading as much as possible to our students while pausing to ask questions and leave out words that would be easy for the children to anticipate, as well as to sing as much as we read to them.  At the end of session 1 the teachers were given a chance to ask questions to help the presenters prepare for our next session.   

In part two of our PD Mariela and Christina set up centers for the teachers to practice with and participate in. The centers were designed so that teachers could use them in their classrooms right away. Each of the centers focussed on increasing strength, and balance, and meeting the needs of our sensory-seeking students. The teachers were excited to leave the PD with new ideas, fun strategies, and answers to their questions.  Many of the new strategies and activities were implemented in the classrooms the next day.