Spokane: "First ever sensory friendly field day" for 200 SPED high school students

May 14, 2025, Spokesman Review: 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. . . ..

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. . . .

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.” . . .

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. . . .

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.”