My Space: A Haven for Sensory Processing
May 30, 2015
A student holds a foldable, accordion-style fabric “tent” for creating a haven around a classroom chair.
In the spirit of our work with the Adaptive Design Association, students in the spring 2015 class worked with the Walker School in Needham to design some low tech adaptive furniture. Walker teachers told the team about their needs for some kind of coverings for classroom chairs to make them sensory havens—spaces of protection and calm, without possibility for injury. Like a private cave as a respite, with simple materials. They wanted something in the spirit of a library carrel without the potential to cause harm with its heft and edges.
An annotated sketch on a whiteboard shows the needs for the chair.
They’re designed for students who have sensory processing disorders that may result from psycho-social challenges or atypicality on the autism spectrum. Students iterated through a number of possibilities, eventually arriving at this felt model:
Simple toggles and cording secure a felt canopy that wraps u-shaped around the back of a standard child’s classroom chair.
An Olin student models sitting in the chair with felted canopy drawn close, the height of which would provide total coverage for a school-age child.
One of the team shows how easy it is to fold and pack away the final product.
The final prototype packed up easily for portability and was made for easy replication: commonly available craft materials and simple fabrication techniques.