Hundreds of special education students convene in first ever sensory friendly field day: ‘They can all just be themselves’

Students in special education programs may abstain from the traditional high school fare; the buzzers and screaming at a basketball game or flashing lights at a school dance could be overwhelming for neurodiverse students, often hypersensitive to loud sounds or bright lights, for example.

But for the first time at Shadle Park High School, a day of unforgettable fun was built specifically around their needs. The school hosted an inclusive “adapted field day” for the 200-some special education high schoolers in their district, jam-packed with dozens of activities from a petting zoo to wheelchair basketball to a bouncy castle.

“A lot of times, other events, like sports and athletic events, are really loud and difficult to be in. So this, it’s really designed just for them,” said Special Education Teacher Toni Hoke, who brought her students from North Central.

Seeking to unite all the high schoolers receiving special education, Shadle duo Darby Schmidlkofer and Kelleigh Krelkamp set out to recreate the iconic field day in any students’ school career, but centered around inclusion. The two work at Shadle as a special education teacher and speech language pathologist, respectively.

“Inclusion is paramount and at the forefront of our brain always. We want to make sure that students feel as though they’re getting their actual high school experience,” Schmidlkofer said. “It’s such a pivotal time in their life, and we want them to feel involved and actively participate.”

During their regular school day, the teens rotate around different zones laid out in the school’s campus. In the courtyard, community partners have contributed different activities meant to entertain the senses: a large tub of gel water beads that students squish and run their hands through; huge bubble wands; a dark tent filled with colored lights and stuffed animals that play music and dance at the touch of a button.

“We have visual, we have auditory, we have kinesthetic, we have vestibular, we have every sensory modality you could ever think of, we have thought out and planned and executed,” Krelkamp said.

Inside the sensory tent, Ferris freshman Adiana Williams was mesmerized by a tall tube with bubbling water and toy fish bobbing up and down. Her face glowed in the tent only illuminated by the colorful lights and glow sticks scattered around.

“A lot of these kids, their sensories are so far higher, and they see the world in sharper, clearer detail,” Hoke said. “So it’s better to have things that are calmer for them, so it’s not so overwhelming.”

On the field, players from Spokane’s Velocity soccer team dribbled soccer balls back and forth with students, who challenged each other to games and cheered at each goal, no matter who scored it.

“I played some soccer, and I feel good about it,” said Winter Wilson, who is 20 years old and enrolled in the district’s transition program where he learns job skills alongside other students preparing to enter the workforce.

“I like that I get to run around,” Wilson added.

The busyness was sometimes overwhelming for students, but organizers prepared for that. Some teachers pulled their students away for a moment of calm. Some students peeled away from the action, content to pull sprigs of grass and drop them into a metal drainage grate. Students “stimming,” a term to describe repetitive stimulatory movements or sounds that many neurodiverse people use to self-regulate, didn’t get a second look.

“It’s having an area where they can all just be themselves,” Schmidlkofer said. “We have people jumping around, and everyone knows what’s happening. He’s stimming, he’s living his best life; the madness is beautiful here. Everyone knows what’s going on, and everyone’s got each other’s back.”

Athletes from ParaSport Spokane brought basketball wheelchairs and running frames for the students to experiment with, arranging games in the gym and races on the track. The organization dedicated to highlighting adaptive sports for individuals with disabilities regularly does outreach visits at schools.

Twenty-five area organizations contributed to the endeavor, also assisted by Shadle’s leadership students, who helped to make shirts all the students and staff wore at the event and ran around energetically in superhero costumes, the theme of the day.

“It’s just a day where we come out here and have fun and be inclusive for everybody,” senior Carson Eickstadt said. “The kids that may not have as much opportunity or it’s not as easy as everybody else; we’re out here to make it comfortable and fun and just be a great day.”