Mission Statement
- To provide a wholistic and experiential learning environment for children with special needs equal to those provided to their typically-developing peers.
- To realize learning and life potential through wholistic education, movement, neurological and sensory integration, and spatial dynamics.
- To offer support, resources, and community for families with children with special needs and to those who care for them.
“Events that are filled with meaning reflect to the student, ‘I am cared for, I am growing and developing’.” ~ Prajna
Why is neurological and sensory integration critical for children today?
The reason is that for thousands of years human beings have had demanding physical activity at the center of their lives for work, education, and survival. Our modern world has created a life of convenience that is riddled with passive and addictive forms of entertainment. We no longer need ongoing activity for survival. We can call out, call in, drive through, drop off, or push a button. We may have a flash of enjoyment but we will not thrive. Activity, or movement continues to be the central way we educate our neurological wellbeing. At the base of this is the nourishment and integration of our senses. In order to thrive in modern culture particular attention needs to go to educating these senses. The full development of our five senses depends upon the development and integration of our base senses. These base senses are the tactile or touch system, the vestibular or balance system, and proprioceptive or muscle/joint system.
Unless the base senses are well nourished and integrated, the higher senses will struggle with intake and processing, and remain unsure how to interpret the incoming sensation. This will leave the nervous system on alarm and in “survival” mode. When a student – or any one else – cannot integrate the sensory information she is receiving she is overwhelmed. Each of the three base systems play a central role in telling us what is happening internally, where we are in space, and where the “I” ends and “other” begins. Together they give us our fundamental security. Since we are, wisely, programmed to put survival above all else, if these are not functioning well, both individually and in an integrated manner, we are at the mercy of our most instinctual selves – the reflexes.
At Flowing River we weave a wide array of “old fashioned chores” right through our days. It might be in the focused physical activities of the morning, five to ten minutes of targeted movement now and then, or having a student who can not focus take a lap around the perimeter rather than sit in his or her seat. In the classroom we work with specific movements, crafts, and handwork activities, along with very natural opportunities to nourish and integrate the senses.
Informed by the work of Jean Ayres, PhD – the founder of Sensory Integration Therapy. Along with many others including: Spatial Dynamics, The Extra Lesson, Sally Goddard Blythe (See Links for more information).
Greek pentathlon: long distance running event.
Greek pentathlon: student receives beauty style and grace award for long distance running event.