Ground broken for sensory room at St Andrew school

An ambitious suggestion during a parent-teacher conference at Melrose Primary and Junior High led to a seed being planted that has now grown into the breaking of ground for the construction of a sensory room at the St Andrew-based institution.

A sensory room is a specially designed therapeutic space used to support neurodivergent people, including those with autism or ADHD, to either calm down during overstimulation or engage in focused sensory exploration.

Project Spectrum was officially launched on Tuesday, marked by the symbolic groundbreaking for a sensory room, through a partnership involving the Rotary Clubs of Grand Cayman, Kingston, and Montego Bay.

Speaking at the launch at the school’s Kew Road location, Principal Keisha Waller said that what initially felt like a foreign concept – a sensory room – soon gained traction, prompting outreach to the Rotary Club of Grand Cayman.

“Without hesitation, they jumped on board, and so a vision and a project were born. So the conversation began and the foundation was set, and the team started to merge. We have been receiving students with and without exceptionality for at least eight years, and we have never had a programme such as this,” she said.

Sherrion Robinson knows first-hand the joys and challenges of raising a neurodivergent child. She told The Gleaner that it was her constant search for strategies to calm her daughter, who is on the autism spectrum that led her to discover the benefits of the sensory room.

“It was during the IEP (Individual Education Plan) discussion. I was giving her (the principal) developmental feedback. I was just information dumping, data dumping, and the idea came,” she recalled.

Robinson, who says the monetary challenge is the biggest one parents with nuerodivergent children face, also disclosed that she was very strategic with her decision to send her then non-verbal child to Melrose, having received positive reviews from experts and non-experts.

“They recommended that this was the top-performing school in the region – number one. I spoke to her dad and said, ‘Okay, the ministry said even though she is severely autistic, there are children that are more severe than her, and she is to go into the primary education system, and this is as good a choice as any’,” Robinson told The Gleaner.

PROJECTED START DATE

Addressing the launch, Laureen Robinson, project director from the Rotary Club of Grand Cayman, said construction would take place during the upcoming holiday break.

“More importantly, as we do this, we must take a sledge hammer to the wall of silence stigma that insulates these children. Too often, society whispers that autism is a life sentence of limitation. The very chains that define autism – intense focus, pattern recognition, and minds that see the world differently – are the engines of genius that guard our modern world today,” she said.

“Think of Albert Einstein, think of Isaac Newton, think of Nikola Tesla ... . These are not just historical figures. They are proof that when you remove stigma and provide support, an autistic child has the potential to change the world, not despite their autism, but because of how their unique brain is wired,” she added.

Theoretical physicist Einstei; Newton, the father of calculus; and Tesla, who revolutionised electrical engineering, were never diagnosed with autism as the modern medical markers did not exist during their lifetime, but historians have retroactively determined that aspects of their behaviour suggest that they could have been neurodivergent.

The room at Melrose will house evidence-based sensory equipment, assistive communication technology, including augmentative and alternative communication tools, and will be sustained by comprehensive teacher training and capacity building.

The Rotary Club of Grand Cayman will also provide a trained occupational therapist who will provide hands-on support and ensure the transfer of knowledge.

karen.madden@gleanerjm.com