ATHENS, Ala. — A northern Alabama school district continues its efforts to accommodate students on the autism spectrum by adding this week a sensory room to another local school.

Athens Intermediate School in Athens, Alabama is now the third school in the city district to open a sensory room for special needs students.

The completion of the project comes as entities across the nation — schools and even toy stores — are making efforts to accommodate children with autism and other disabilities.

Project volunteer Stacey Givens, whose son Brooks is registered on the autism spectrum, said opening the third such room in a local school is nothing but a positive sign for special needs students.

“It makes all the difference in the world,” she said.

Givens, who has a background in professional occupational therapy, brought the idea of a sensory room to her son’s elementary school when he began classes. The space is designed as a calm environment full of objects used to stimulate a child’s senses of touch, hearing and vision.

Some children with cognitive disabilities need an increased presence of things to touch, hear and visually stimulate them and keep them calm. Experts say giving even a highly functioning autistic child time in a sensory room during the school day can boost their classroom performance by giving them time to move and release pent-up energy.

“I feared (Brooks) would not succeed in school without it,” Givens said.

The special education administrators of Athens City Schools were more than receptive to the idea. Years later, Brooks is a successful third-grader and there’s not only a sensory room at one local school, but also two others.

A sensory room for a fourth local school is also in the works.

“To see this come together gives me great relief,” Givens said.

Givens worked with the school district and community donors to secure the equipment for the room.

What’s different about some of the things at the latest school to add a sensory room as compared to the elementary schools is that they are designed for bigger children. There’s a large inner tube connected to safety bars that children can jump on as well as a soft hexagon children can lay on top of and tumble over safely.

Weighted tubes can be removed from a rack on the wall and wrapped around the shoulders or a child can climb into a giant fabric “pocket,” providing a comforting hugging sensation some students need to avoid emotional distress.

Some of the equipment is the same, such as a crash pad, which is a large pillow a student can fall onto repeatedly without hurting themselves, and a wrap-around swing a student can sit and spin themselves around in.

Some of the equipment is not specially designed; such as a plastic tub full of gel marbles a child can repeatedly run their hands through and small paintbrushes used to provide a stroking sensation.

Even the look of the room has to be carefully planned. Once the door opens, the space seems out of place in a school. The fluorescent lights are not often used, but instead replaced with soft tube lighting and lamps covered in a bubbling water globe complete with plastic bobbing fish.

There’s also a white noise machine mounted to the wall.

Often, children come to the room in small groups instead of individually.

Givens said the equipment serves a wide array of children, including those that are in their own special needs program as well as highly functioning children in typical classrooms that might need to use the room to avoid emotional distress and risk disrupting their class time.

The room has been in use since the year began in August, but was not fully finished until the end of October. The difference has been noticeable, Givens said.

“The children’s faces say it all,” she said. “They’re able to express themselves.”

Special education teacher Laurie Viers, a 13-year educator in the field, picked out the equipment for the room. She’s had access to sensory equipment before, but never a dedicated room for it.

“It really does relieve the anxieties school causes for these students,” she said. “It’s a really nice place for them to chill. It’s an asset.”

Croomes writes for the Athens, Alabama News Courier.