Just a little update on our home therapy room set up!
Colin has a huge playroom in the basement that serves as his sensory room. You can find the original post on that here. When I took a leave of absence from my job this year, I wanted to have a work room for him as well. I converted our extra bedroom into a workroom, but that did not work so well.
At the time, he was not into the work room. I tried to do table work, visual schedules, the works. I was super motivated to do it, but when he screamed and threw a fit for a week straight, I gave up on that idea. The “work room” has since been converted to “the Lego room” because Mommy couldn’t stand the Legos all over the house.
Colin started ABA, and I saw how their rooms were set up. I also saw that he is very capable of completing adult-directed work tasks. After completing some parent training and observation at the ABA facility, I feel much more confident and able to get him to “work” at home. Since our spare bedroom now has 15,241 Lego pieces, I couldn’t really make that a work space.
So what did I do?
I converted our home’s entryway into Colin’s in-home therapy space!
When we built our house, I loved the idea of an entryway. We literally never use it though. I put out cute decorations that we never even look at. I had a light bulb moment where I went, “hey, the entry way would be perfect!”
1) It is centrally located in the house, so we wouldn’t feel like we are being secluded to a back room or anything.
2) It is just the right size because we don’t really need a whole room.
3) I can remove all other distractions from the space so it only contains necessary items.
Here’s a little peek at the space:
You can see that it’s a small little room. This table was recommended by a BCBA (Board Certified Behavior Analyst). They use these at his school (as we call it). It is adjustable in height, so it will grow with him. The picture below is a clickable link to the exact table we ordered:
Requesting is a big goal for Colin right now. So I got a huge Rubbermaid tub to hold all of his favorite (preferred) items. I don’t want those preferred items to be “free,” meaning that he can just go get them any time he wants. They need to be on lock down so he has to ask for them.
I feel best when things are organized. I got little plastic bins to store his “work tasks.” I got them at Dollar Tree. I mean seriously, isn’t Dollar Tree the best store ever?!
I’m really excited to get him working in this space!
If you are wanting to create a work space in your own home, remember – you don’t need a huge fancy therapy room. Work with what you’ve got!