SPOKANE, Wash. — Focusing for hours on end at a school can be hard for some children, so Balboa Elementary in North Spokane created a unique solution that allows students to get their energy out. It's called a sensory pathway.
Colorful stickers and tape line two of the school's hallways. Each design signals the children to do a different movement, from jumping jacks to push-ups against the wall.
It's a way for the children to refocus their energy quickly, then go back to class with a better mindset.
"Sometimes it's hard to focus in class and we get a little wiggly so we go do the sensory path it gets some of those wiggles out and when we come back to class it keeps us more focused and on task," said Ryder Webster, a sixth grade student at Balboa Elementary.
If a teacher notices a child being distracted or displaying bad behavior, their first step is to send the student on a sensory pathway break. The students can take a hall pass and go through the pathway.
There are two pathways in the school. One is designed for the older students and one is designed for the younger kids.
Principal Lollis and another teacher at the school put the pathways together themselves during the 2019 summer.
"We've seen a decrease in behaviors because students are getting their energy out in a positive way," Balboa Elementary School Principal Brenda Lollis said.
And the students love the quick break from the monotony of the school day.
"It's like you're spacing off and you don't really want to do work and you kind of just are out of it," Webster said.
But a sensory pathway break can change the mindset of a child feeling that way. Every student learned the movements associated with each part at the beginning of the year and now use the pathways often.
The younger students especially like the pathway because theirs is space themed.
First grader Chase Corigliano said he enjoys the pathways because "it is fun for kids."