Teens with sensory processing disorders (SPD) have another hurdle to deal with. Teens with SPD often have difficulty regulating or even experiencing sensory information. Bright lights, sudden noises, and even the wrong colors add unnecessary stress to a teen’s life.

If your teen has a sensory processing disorder, consider creating a sensory room just for them. Purposefully designed around your teen’s specific needs and wishes, these rooms are perfect for those with SPD.

Sensory rooms bring calm and comfort to many teens. From calming colors to hand-selected lighting features, make this project one for you and your teen to remember. Here are four ideas for building a sensory room with (and for) your teen.

Boost Comfort With Couches, Cushions, and More

Comfortable surroundings provide great deterrents to overstimulation. As a special room filled with their favorite comforting features, a sensory room is an ultimate comfort destination.

To enhance this, you and your teen should fill it with comfortable couches, cushions, and beanbag chairs. Soft surfaces surround the body and provide fully-supported comfort. This helps calm those experiencing sensory issues. 

Likewise, soft surfaces are safe and teen-friendly if they become over-excited. 

Other comfort options include:

• Convertible couches for day and night use.
• Crash mats for yoga, exercise, or simply as another comfortable surface.
• Favorite weighted blankets or pillows for extra comfort during bad days. 

As one of your teen’s major safe spaces, their sensory room should reflect a sense of solace. Thus, soft pillows and lounging couches provide comfort for days.

Sensory-Minded Colors and Decor

Another important idea for a sensory room is to use appropriate colors, designs, and decor. 

Often, bright and bold colors cause anxiety or other forms of discomfort in teens with SPD. Likewise, complex designs and images might also trigger sensory issues. To avoid this, paint and design the room following neutral or soothing colors.

Optimal colors for sensory rooms include:

• Cool colors on the blue spectrum, including blue, indigo, and purple.
• Earth tones such as green, brown, and gray.
• Soft pastels like pink, light greens, and soft yellows. 

Follow your teen’s favorite colors, but ensure the colors stay within the safe sensory spectrum. With other decorations, like curtains or wall hangings, follow the same rules. Focus on pleasing colors, gentle patterns, and soothing images.

The Power of Customized Vertical Surfaces 

Once you finalize the room’s paint and decor choices, convert one of the walls into a vertical surface.

Working on vertical surfaces helps improve creativity and focus. As well, it enhances many motor skills, both fine and gross. An easy way to achieve this is with chalkboard paint.

Chalkboard paint is easy to use. With a quick application, your teen has an entire wall for art, writing, notes, or simply having fun. Chalk art and writing are soothing to many children. Plus, it allows your teen to express their artistic sides in a safe space.

Other ideas for a workable vertical surface include:

• Whiteboards for the same benefits as chalkboards, without the texture and mess of chalk.
• Plexiglass walls for a fun, clear whiteboard effect.
• Illuminated wall panels with different tactile, visual, and even audio outputs. 

If your teen is already an artist, gear the vertical wall to their existing talents. Create a painting corner made from easy-to-clean tile. Or, perhaps they love to sing. A soundproof recording box provides comfort and a safe space for artistic expression.

Illuminating the Room

A room changes characteristics and feel based on its lighting. Light position, color, and intensity all influence the feeling of a space. Teens with SPD often struggle with bright lights. Because of this, the lighting of a sensory room is crucial.

Sensory lighting comes in many shapes and forms. Different teens will need different styles of lights based on their sensory needs. For example;

• Lava lamps are an old favorite. The slow-moving bubbles and soft glow provide comforting illumination. 
• Bubble tube lights are engaging, creating pleasing visual stimuli that help teens focus.
• Fiber optic lights come in curtains, fountains, and more. They are soft to the touch and create a soothing, pulsating glow without any harsh brightness. 

Soothing sensory lights create a comforting environment. They actively help prevent meltdowns, overstimulation, and other negative feelings. Bubbles, pulses, and other soft movements fixate a person’s attention, thus causing their sensory issues to ebb away.

Conversely, avoid bright lights with cool lighting, which often overstimulates people with SPD. Also, not every teen is the same. If possible, test these fixtures with your teen before installation. While sensory lights are suitable for most, some may cause overstimulation in certain children. 

As with all forms of decoration, don’t overdo it. Abundant choices or even a room full of items are common triggers in those with SPD. Stay simple and close to your teen’s favorites. With a focus on your teen’s comfort, their sensory room will soon become one of their favorite places. 

Final Thoughts

Creating a sensory room with your teen is an empowering task. Not only does it make a room devoted to them, but it also gives them a healthy dose of control over their immediate lives. This self-authority is a vital confidence builder for teens and kids with SPD or other disabilities. 

Creating a sensory room with your teen teaches important skills. Responsibility, self-reflection, and design are just a few lessons that they will pick up. And with your teen soon to leave the house, such life skills and lessons are of the utmost importance.

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Are you struggling with a teen or young adult — possibly that is failing to launch or with sensory processing disorder? Learn more about the benefits of residential treatment for your teenager — for instilling social skills, life skills and more. Contact us for a free consultation.

The post 4 Ideas for Building a Sensory Room With Your Teen first appeared on Help Your Teens.

Teenagers have it tough today. Between hormonal changes, peer pressure, and all challenges of the pandemic, life can be tough. But it’s even more challenging for teens with sensory processing disorder (SPD).

If your child struggles with SPD, you can help him overcome these challenges. First, let’s learn more about this disorder.

What is Sensory Processing Disorder?

To understand SPD, you must understand how our senses work. When our senses experience input, data is sent to sensory receptors in our nervous system that cause us to react to things like sound or touch. 

Normally, we only react to extreme stimuli such as pain, loud noises, or pungent odors. However, these sensors don’t work properly for people with SPD. For them, mild stimuli can be intense, like lukewarm water feeling scalding hot.

How SPD Impacts Your Teenager 

SPD can be distracting or even dangerous. Noise, touch, or smells that don’t bother most people can feel painful. Your teen may struggle with wearing certain clothes or being exposed to fluorescent light. Large crowds may cause him anxiety.

Teens with SPD can overreact or under-react. For example, they may have a serious injury but not feel any pain. Or, your teen may not be aware of their own strength and hurt others without meaning it.

What’s it like being a teen with SPD? Katie Cicanese describes some of her challenges as a 16-year-old: “…Often little things like sitting in my kitchen can cause me to have extreme panicky feelings. I find sitting anywhere besides my room is difficult because the material and fabric hurt my skin.”

Katie goes on to describe her difficulties in places that most teens commonly frequent: food courts, shopping malls, grocery stores. Even her own home can cause agony.

This can be very stressful for teens. Living with SPD can lead to anxiety, panic disorder, depression, negative emotions, poor attention, poor self-image, and other mental health problems. For some young people, SPD makes them unaware of danger, putting their lives at risk as well.

Many people on the autism spectrum as well as teens with attention deficit disorder experience sensory issues. Today, the causes of this neurological disorder are still unclear. However, you can take steps to help your teenager. 

Helping Your Teen Manage SPD

What can you do to help your child? With a formal diagnosis, therapy may alleviate sensory processing disorder challenges. Numerous options are available depending on what senses are affected:

• Sensory-based physical therapy 
• Vision therapy 
• Listening therapy 
• Speech or language therapy
• Psychotherapy 

Therapy can be effective but it may not be covered by insurance. You can also help your teen by implementing some lifestyle changes.

Create a Safe Space at Home

Your teen needs to have a safe home that makes him feel comfortable. You should let him help you choose decor that is sensory-friendly.

Ideas include: 

• Warm, soft lighting throughout your home. 
• The paint should be neutral or soothing, gentle colors.
• Disorganized homes can be very stressful so work on having everything neat and organized.
• Be aware of things like loud tile or hardwood floors and coarse, rough surfaces on couches and chairs. Comfort and quiet should be key!
• Window dressings. Make wise choices that block sound and harsh light.

It’s also smart to pay attention to sounds and smells that come into your home. Find ways to make your home calm, soothing, and odor-free.

Tips for Managing Stress

Teach your child good habits for managing stress. Simple strategies can make life less overwhelming for teens with SPD, such as creating a daily routine. This helps reduce anxiety as well. 

Stress can also be alleviated with healthy habits. Teens may prefer junk food but a nutritious diet is better for both physical and mental health. Your child is old enough to plan family meals and participate in their preparation. This encourages both independence and good health.

Fitness, sleep, and relaxation are also necessary to reduce stress. Let your teen pick exercises that challenge him and do them regularly. Make sure he gets at least 8 hours of sleep. And help him to find downtime activities that help him to relax every day. 

Managing School and Planning for the Future

Work with teachers to make your child’s school experience less difficult. If your child has a formal diagnosis, you can get a 504 Plan or IEP to make accommodations. For example, classrooms often have extremely harsh lighting that is uncomfortable for people with SPD. Request teachers to use soft lighting instead or cover the fluorescents.

Other accommodations that can help include:

• Frequent classroom breaks 
• Classroom desk arrangement 
• Cushion or special seat
• Stress balls to relieve tension
• Noise-reducing headphones

However, this may not work for your child. High school is your teenager’s introduction to preparing for work. Today, remote learning and work opportunities are far more common. These provide your child an opportunity to excel while remaining in a comfortable atmosphere that does not trigger his SPD. 

For example, he can pursue work-from-home jobs, such as virtual accounting and train from the comfort of his home. Talk with your child’s guidance counselor about options that provide him with a successful remote career path.

Sensory processing disorder can be difficult for teenagers. However, your child can learn to manage it. With your help, your child can survive and even thrive in his teenage years!

Also read:

How Bullying Effects Mental Health

Causes of Teenage Mental Health

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If you are struggling with your teenager that’s causing family conflict or negative behavioral concerns and you have exhausted your local resources, learn more about how residential treatment can help your troubled teen and your family. Contact us today for  a free consultation.

The post How to Help Your Teen With Sensory Processing Disorder first appeared on Help Your Teens.