Event Information
We invite you to join our 12-hour professional learning course focused on practical sensory solutions that move beyond fidgets and brain breaks.
Instruction will take place over four live Zoom sessions, supplemented by four hours of asynchronous coursework in Canvas.
Students often struggle to maintain focus, engagement, and alertness — challenges that can be amplified by disabilities, trauma, triggers, or differences in sensory processing. Classrooms themselves can present environmental demands that are overwhelming for some students while under-stimulating for others. How do we create spaces that support everyone?
This interactive course equips both new and experienced educators with tools and strategies to build more inclusive, sensory-responsive learning environments.
Participants will:
• Explore how trauma, triggers, and sensory processing impact regulation and behavior
• Develop observation and assessment skills to support unbiased decision-making
• Apply sensory-based and UDL-aligned strategies that benefit the whole classroom
• Identify barriers to self-regulation and problem-solve effective solutions
• Learn collaboration approaches with teams and caregivers
• Support student self-advocacy across educational stages
• Practice collecting and using data through guided case study work
Participants will leave with actionable strategies ready for immediate classroom use.
Waitlist Limit: 0/50
Courses
Supporting Student Regulation: Sensory-Based Strategies for Educators-Extended Workshop (Equity)
Clock Hour
Course Description
In this course educators will learn successful sensory solutions for students moving beyond fidgets and brain breaks! Students often struggle with the ability to maintain focus, stay engaged and alert. These are essential parts of learning but can be especially difficult for students with disabilities, trauma, or other impacts on self-regulation. Our classrooms can have environmental demands or triggers that are overwhelming for some students, but not enough stimuli for others. Do you feel that creating a sensory friendly classroom space for multiple students is like walking a tightrope? This course will help you be an advocate for an inclusive classroom setting where you have the tools and resources to observe, assess and apply strategies that can benefit the whole classroom. In this 12 hour course designed for both new and experienced educators, we learn skills for the application of sensory-based solutions to validate student experiences and support skills for learning. We will review the impacts on regulation that trauma, triggers and impaired sensory processing have on the brain as demonstrated through observable student behavior. After self reflection as a basis for learning unbiased assessment, learners continue into assessment and planning strategies. We will look at problem-solving barriers to self-regulation to the benefit of the entire classroom, incorporating UDL concepts. Coursework also includes ideas for collaboration with teams including caregivers and teaching self-advocacy to students in all educational stages. Educators will be given time to learn how to collect, review and process data for their specific case study with instructor and peer discussions for successful strategies to use right away.Course Objectives
Participants will be able to:
Review resources and understand how trauma, disability and neurology impacts regulation through self assessment and reflection.
Use different assessment tools and observation skills to gather data, including caregiver/team input, IEP and other documentation review, in development of student-centered plans.
Reflect and respond to data and problem solve barriers. Plan how and what to use to educate/collaborate with the team.
Bring all the pieces together to implement a plan using inclusive, flexible support tools for their student case study.
Ability to generalize these skills using UDL principles for multiple settings, students and classrooms.