What We Do
In order to help children settle to learn in classrooms, our mobile, fully equipped peripatetic bus provides pupils a space where they can learn how to manage their sensory differences while still being kept on track educationally.
Increase
Increase Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision so that more children can be supported to improve their learning outcomes.
Create
Create more awareness of SPD and the impact it can have on education and home life.
Help
Help reduce the disruptive behaviours in classrooms so that all staff and students can focus on what is important – learning.
Sensing to Learn; Learning to Make Sense
The Fidget Project is all about including children who are often excluded in education due to Sensory Processing Differences (SPD). SPD is estimated to affect anywhere from 5% to 16.5% of people in the UK but it is rarely learned about or fully understood. When it comes to school age children, this means that they are often considered disruptive, seen as acting out, or labelled as trouble students. The reality is that they are often experiencing sensory overloads that negatively impact their ability to sit still, listen to listen to instructions, work collaboratively in pairs or small groups or manage everyday requests to work with noises or be able to touch certain materials. All of these things can disrupt traditional classroom learning.
At the Fidget Project, we are finding workable ways around that. Instead of just ‘managing the behaviours” of children with SPD in classrooms, we are investigating whether giving them regular access to a specialist Occupational Therapist and the Fidget Project equipment will teach them new and additional ways to self -regulate which in turn will help them to be better able to access their higher executive functioning. In other words, to be more available to work with others and to learn.
What are the Benefits?
Funding in schools is tight, particularly in rural areas and many of the schools in our area are small and located in hard to reach locations. Having access to Specialist Occupational Therapists is rare. Waiting lists are long even for children already placed on a diagnostic pathway. The equipment that helps children to better manage their Sensory Processing needs can be bulky, expensive or need frequent replacement. For example Vestibular needs respond to spinning equipment, Proprioceptive needs respond to equipment that provides body pressure. We will make these aids more available in our local area for our local community.
This not only allows children with SPD to continue their learning journey, but it also gives invaluable support to schools, teachers, and parents. The aim is to see as many children as possible in England’s South West gain access to the education that will give them a bright future.
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