Creating a Safe Space for Neurodivergent Children to Thrive

A home is a place of rest and comfort, providing a sense of belonging. It is full of elements that we interact with daily- texture, lighting, furniture. A beautiful aspect of being human is that we all have unique experiences with these tactile elements. Even better, we can design our home these elements to facilitate more comfort and joy. Lately, our studio has been thinking specifically about how home design can improve the experience of Neurodivergent children within their own homes. 

Our health and wellness-focused interior design studio works with families to create soothing spaces that support everyone in the home. We've found that boosting the wellbeing of a child will, in turn, increase the wellbeing of the parents and care providers. When we hold space for our loved ones, we can begin to find ways to coexist with peace and ease. It's critical to understand that no singular solution works for everyone, so facing challenges with empathy is key to understanding the unique needs of the child and family. We approach building healing spaces through human-centered home design modalities, prioritizing human interaction with the built environment. For children who may struggle to communicate their needs verbally, it is essential to create a healthy and comfortable environment to support their mental, physical, emotional, and sensory wellbeing. 

Some ideas on creating a safe space for a neurodivergent child to thrive: 

Offer Choices. Through adjustable and adaptable features, you can empower your child by offering choices to meet their needs. 

● Adjustable, thoughtful lighting: Dimmer switches can offer autonomy and create a customizable experience to meet a child's shifting needs. 

● Reconfigurable furniture: an interior designer can help create a layout suitable for furniture that a child can freely rearrange themselves. Modular seating, for example, is easy to customize and move within a space to suit the ever-shifting needs of everyone in the household.   

● Privacy vs. open space: Consider a bed with curtains or a canopy to offer a safe, private space for a child to find comfort and solitude.  

Make it intuitive. Designing an intuitive space can help your child interact with their environment, providing a greater sense of comfort and independence. A great example of this at work is at the Bancroft Raymond & Joanne Welsh Campus in New Jersey. KSS Architects created visual psychological cues throughout the campus, such as a sensory trail and specific textures and colors related to designated spaces.[1] 

● Utilize visual cues. The rug pictured above brings in references to the natural world while creating a known pathway and added safety in shared spaces. 

● Create spaces designed to help with transitions utilizing psychological cues. For example, if your child is hesitant to go outdoors, consider a sunroom with expansive views to the outdoors so they may watch from a safe space until they are ready to go outside.  

Consider materials. 

● A home designer can help you source high-quality materials that can withstand heavy handling and potential emotional episodes. 

● A highly sensitive child might also be sensitive to odors from adhesives, stains, paints. Wellness-focused home designers can help source non-toxic low/no VOC materials. 

● Thoughtfully selected textures and colors can create a soothing, tactile experience. Individuals respond to textures and colors differently, so it is best to utilize samples to assess the physical response between the residents and any proposed materials.  

Keep the senses in mind. 

● Appeal to unique sensory needs. Because neurodivergent children may have different sensitivities that fall under hypersensitive or hyposensitive, the interior design team should work collaboratively with parents and caregivers to create an individualized strategy. 

● Weighted blankets can aid in creating a therapeutic experience for a child. Our studio has worked with families to design custom weighted blankets in natural and organic materials. 

● A well-designed bedroom or playroom can incorporate sound-reducing walls. If you are not ready for remodeling, consider acoustic panels, white noise machines, or heavy, interlined draperies to customize the sound experience. 

● Many people have specific sensitivities to color temperature. Our studio recommends the residents experience and respond to the proposed color temperature of the light before installation. Consider an "all off" switch for the power in each room, which turns off all power to provide ease for a child sensitive to hums and electromagnetic waves. 

● Incorporate artwork: Art can help influence our emotional experience, as viewing art can have mood-boosting effects. Curate a positive experience for a child by selecting artwork that considers their interests. 

Incorporate Biophilic Design. 

Biophilic design aims to make healthy and comfortable interiors by meaningfully incorporating natural elements into our home design and work environments. We've found that the healing power of the outdoors is one of the best ways to facilitate a healthy environment. Healthcare studies have reported that exposure to nature can reduce stress, lower blood pressure, provide pain relief, and contribute to healing and recovery from illness. [2] 

● Utilize nature within the child's space. You can do this using indoor plants, decorating with found objects from nature, or sourcing furniture made from natural, sustainable materials. 

● Evoke a sense of nature through items like art, wallpaper, or other nature-inspired decor items. 

● Consider designing a room with a view of the outdoors so your child can observe and respond to natural processes like the shift of daylight or changing seasons. 

We know that home design can help support a healthy, happy environment for growing children and that personalized supportive environments can be especially helpful for the wellbeing of neurodivergent children. The CDC has estimated that one in every 42 boys and one in every 189 American girls are on the Autistic spectrum. Mindful and empathetic design practice empowers us to create spaces that provide comfort and inclusivity, encourage independence, and improve mood. Creating spaces that consider different needs reduces environmental stressors and triggers, maximizing space for children's strengths to shine. 

Sarah Barnard is a WELL and LEED accredited designer and creator of environments that support mental, physical and emotional wellbeing. She creates highly personalized, restorative spaces that are deeply connected to art and the preservation of the environment. An advocate for consciousness, inclusivity, and compassion in the creative process, Sarah’s work has been recognized by Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, Real Simple, HGTV and many other publications. In 2017 Sarah was recognized as a “Ones to Watch” Scholar by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID).

[1] Bancroft Raymond & Joanne Welsh Campus in New Jersey is a learning center for individuals with neurological challenges, autism, and intellectual and developmental disabilities. The facility was designed by KSS Architects and completed in 2017. [2] Robert Ulrich (1884) facilitated a study of patients recovering from gallbladder surgery and assigned them randomly to hospital rooms. All rooms had windows, though some had a brick wall view, where others overlooked a tree grove. The patients assigned to the rooms with the brick wall view had slower recovery times and greater dissatisfaction with their care than their tree overlooking counterparts

Can the Design of Your Home Aid Recovery From Past Trauma? Research Says 'Yes'

As interior designers, we operate from an awareness that because we create the built spaces that our clients inhabit, we exercise tremendous influence on their lived experiences and the ability to make a tangible difference in our clients' mental, physical, and emotional health. (1) While it is easy to accept this as a given in more passive terms, there is an increasing necessity around the active, rather than incidental, cultivation of safe and healing built spaces. At Sarah Barnard Design Studio, we aim to bring an inclusive and trauma-informed approach to home design.

Between 1995 and 1997, Kaiser Permanente conducted a study looking at the health effects resulting from the trauma of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). (2) The parameters around this study were narrow, focusing primarily on abuse, neglect, and domestic strife, without including factors such as trauma due to racism, deportation, illness, or war. The study's participants were also far from a broadly representative group, with nearly 75% of participants identifying as White. Yet, even within these minimal boundaries, the findings were stark—approximately 66% of the study's participants reported ACEs in their personal histories.

If we consider the types of trauma the study excluded and the adverse experiences that occur in adulthood, the implications of this study are significant. It is fair to assume that traumatic experiences are widespread among adults. Particularly in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the mental and emotional fallout of which we are only beginning to understand and measure, addressing the effects of trauma has taken on a new urgency.

Much of the discussion around trauma-informed home design has focused, understandably, on public and institutional contexts often directly connected with health and social services (3). As understanding around the way that physical spaces affect our mental, emotional, and physical health have expanded, so too has demand for spaces designed with health and healing in mind. Where once function and safety were the primary concern in, for example, mental health facilities, home designers are now looking at how to make these spaces soothing and restorative.

Knowing what we know about how widespread the experience of trauma is, it is reasonable to expand our thinking beyond institutional spaces and apply the principles of trauma informed practice to home design, as well as to the way we interact with clients. Our goal is to create spaces that manage the effects of trauma by reducing sudden sensory arousal, while also being actively healing and restorative.

This process begins with creating a safe and inclusive environment for our clients from a project's inception to completion. While it may be safe to assume that most adults carry some form of trauma with them, we don't know what a client's background is unless they feel safe to tell us. We aim to approach our clients with a sense of inclusiveness and sensitivity, allowing ample space to voice their needs. A certain amount of vulnerability and humility lies on us as designers as we hold ourselves accountable for maintaining this safe space for our clients. This accountability allows us to create homes that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also personalized and inclusive to each individual and their needs. As designers, we must keep an open flow of communication between ourselves and our clients, ensuring that communication remains understood on both ends. 

Creating an inclusive space starts with mindfulness and care around the way we communicate(4). There is no default listener. Our intention is to allow people from all walks of life feel heard and understood. We are committed to educating ourselves on inclusive language, as certain words may carry racist or ableist subtext. Finding alternatives to non-inclusive language is one component of this, and it helps to avoid language that presumes the ethnicity, gender identity, or experiences of the listener. To maintain our goal of holistic inclusion throughout our studio, we apply these communication values to our client interactions, internal conversations, and interaction with vendors. By holding ourselves accountable even out of sight of clients, we ensure that inclusivity remains a core principle of our studio.

Painting by Michelle Jane Lee

When we begin each project, our goal in taking a trauma-informed approach to home design and decorating includes finding ways to reduce sensory overstimulation. Sensory triggers can be hugely disturbing for neurodivergent people (particularly those on the autism spectrum), as well as people with chronic migraines, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Alzheimer's, and other chemical or sensory sensitivities (5). Spaces designed with inclusion in mind for neurodivergence and disability will create an environment that feels safe for all users along various spectrums of need. However, even neurotypical people can experience stress from sensory overstimulation, impacting their health and emotional resilience (6). We address this need in home design by creating varied paths to shelter from intrusive sounds, odors, and light. In addition, we empower our clients to limit and customize their exposure to sensory stimuli (7). One way to achieve this is to create smaller sensory retreats within the home, balancing the calming quality of openness with the comforting sense of being enveloped. We use color psychology, textures, and other sensory elements to comfort our clients. Some of this may overlap with general design knowledge of what is considered calming, and some may be specific to each client's taste and sense of comfort.

Painting by Kevin Moore

Our goal as a studio is to create spaces where clients can relax and restore their senses. We achieve this in our projects by intersecting the client's sensory needs with their aesthetic tastes. There is much importance in including art in the spaces we design. At Sarah Barnard Design Studio, art is considered an integral part of home design. Great care is taken not only in the selection of art but also in how and where it is displayed. That said, while there are general notions of what makes a piece of art soothing for a viewer, from the color to subject matter. Ultimately, the most crucial factor is what the client wants to see every day. Clients will benefit most from seeing art that evokes a sense of calm or happiness; however, what that can look like varies widely from person to person. As designers, we offer our guidance and expertise in selecting art for the home.

We can achieve restoration through home design by providing access to nature and integrating natural themes into the spaces themselves. The biophilic design movement has focuses on making nature an integral theme in the home. Biophilic design has tremendous benefits for our emotional, mental, and physical health (8). Views of nature, particularly ones that provide a sense of continuity with the indoors and outdoors, can be one way to achieve this. Prioritizing the use of natural and organic materials can also promote restoration and wellness for our clients. A connection to nature can be undermined by toxic materials that are produced in ecologically harmful ways. On a more symbolic level, we can incorporate nature into an indoor space through organic imagery that evokes the natural world through shape, texture, and color.

Recently, our homes have become even more of a center point in our lives. For many of us, our home has become a workplace, school, and place for recreation all at once, increasing the need for therapeutic and restorative spaces within the home. Unfortunately, mental and emotional restoration has become harder to achieve now that our homes serve more functions than ever. As designers, we must be creative in our approach. We can create boundaries in the home without putting up walls, for example, using a screen to designate an area as a workspace, where the day's stressors can remain out of sight when it's time to relax. We can place extra care and attention into places in the home that offer privacy, letting them act as retreats from the rest of the living space. Thinking beyond a room's most basic function in this way can open up opportunities to create calming, restorative environments in less traditional spaces.

As designers, we have a tremendous opportunity to alleviate trauma by creating healing spaces for our clients while implementing a warm, understanding, and inclusive design process. We may never know or see our clients' struggles, but we can approach each project with empathy, compassion, and practical design knowledge to address their needs. As gratifying as having our clients appreciate our work, it is even more gratifying to know that we can make a tangible difference in their health and happiness.

Ceramic slug by Joseph and Marjorie Lake 

Sarah Barnard is a WELL and LEED accredited designer and creator of environments that support mental, physical and emotional wellbeing. She creates highly personalized, restorative spaces that are deeply connected to art and the preservation of the environment. An advocate for consciousness, inclusivity, and compassion in the creative process, Sarah’s work has been recognized by Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, Real Simple, HGTV and many other publications. In 2017 Sarah was recognized as a “Ones to Watch” Scholar by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID).   

Sarah Barnard is a WELL and LEED accredited designer and creator of environments that support mental, physical and emotional wellbeing. She creates highly personalized, restorative spaces that are deeply connected to art and the preservation of the environment. An advocate for consciousness, inclusivity, and compassion in the creative process, Sarah’s work has been recognized by Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, Real Simple, HGTV and many other publications. In 2017 Sarah was recognized as a “Ones to Watch” Scholar by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID).

Works Cited

(1) https://dcf.vermont.gov/sites/dcf/files/OEO/training/2019/Trauma-Informed.pdf

(2) https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/aces/about.html

(3) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/05/business/mental-health-facilities-design.html

(4) https://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/guidelines-inclusive-language

(5) https://www.hksinc.com/how-we-think/research/sensory-well-being-for-adolescents-with-developmental-disabilities-creating-and-testing-a-sensory-well-being-hub/

(6) http://universaldesign.ie/What-is-Universal-Design/The-7-Principles/

(7) https://www.asid.org/lib24watch/files/pdf/8477

(8) https://www.fastcompany.com/90333072/what-is-biophilic-design-and-can-it-really-make-you-happier-and-healthier

Designing a Safe Space for an Autistic Child

Designing a calm environment for children with autism can seem like a daunting task. While every child is different and may react differently to specific situations, there are five key home design points to consider to successfully achieve a calm and structured space. 

Layout

Consider the scale of the space. What do you want to integrate into the room? One way to successfully choose what you want to include in the place is knowing your child’s needs, and paying close attention to how your child responds to an environment. How do you want your child to navigate through the space? Start the layout by placing the furniture on the sides of the room and leaving the middle open to navigate. This layout is not only simple but easy for the child to move around the room. When placing the furniture on the sides, the child can easily access things he/she needs within the room, fostering independence.

Often children with autism are more comfortable in rooms with clear divisions. Consider subdividing rooms and allowing for reconfiguration. Plan secure storage for items so they can be cleared away quickly when not in use.

Noise
Noise is another aspect of designing a room that is often forgotten about but is essential when creating a space for a person with autism. Children with autism are sensitive to loud noises and sometimes cannot filter them out. This sensitivity may cause anxiety, affecting the way the child behaves daily. There are simple ways to prevent background noise from filtering in. Start by pinpointing what background noises you can easily hear from the room that may cause discomfort to your child.

Keep the background noise out by integrating small fixes. Try applying acoustic panels to your walls; this not only brings down the sound, but it can serve as a discrete and functional decorative element. 

If the first option is not something that would be convenient, another way to bring the noise down would be to replace any hardwood flooring with carpet. Not only is this recommended for children with autism because it reduces the chance of your child getting hurt and prevents lighting glare, but it also prevents noise from echoing throughout the room. 

If damping the noise is not possible, try adding pink noise. Similar to white noise, pink noise may improve memory and be better at gently drowning out disturbances.

Lighting
Lighting can have a substantial effect on someone’s mood. Just as we can be affected by specific light, children with autism are often hypersensitive, therefore specific lighting should be considered when integrating fixtures. One thing to stay away from is fluorescent lighting. Fluorescent lighting is known to flicker and depending on the wattage and lamp type can be extremely bright. The flickering is not only distracting, but it is known to cause eye strain, headaches, and migraines. Opt for a fixture with diffused lighting or an installation with adjustable settings in a neutral, unsaturated color. Being able to dim the light can make a difference for someone’s mood. 

Color

Choosing the right color for the room is an essential step. Choose light, neutral colors. Just as bright lights can affect the mood of the child in a negative way, specific colors can have similar effects. Colors to stay away from are anything bold or dark. Although primary colors tend to be the norm when choosing room colors for children, it is not the case when choosing a room color for a child with autism. Bold colors are allowed in small accents, such as their toys. 

Also, wallpapers with busy patterns or stripes can be distracting for your child. Be especially careful to choose a paint that is non-toxic and does not off-gas, to keep your child safe. Try pale blues, soft greens, light purples, and pale pinks for room color options.

Privacy
Research has shown the benefits of a sensory room (or space) for kids with autism. These spaces allow children to feel safe. You can integrate certain things into a sensory room for the child to feel better. As stated previously, layouts are essential. If it is not possible to dedicate an entire room, a corner of a room can be reserved specifically to be the "sensory room," by separating the space with a dark curtain. The idea is to make a place the child can feel comfortable and stress-free. Items such as a bean bag, or a sensory pea pod sold online can help a child feel comfortable and safe.

With these simple ideas in mind, your home can be a safe place for both you and your autistic loved one.

Photos by Chas Metivier, Steven Dewall

Sarah Barnard designs healthy, happy, personalized spaces that are deeply connected to nature and art.

To learn more about Sarah Barnard Design, please visit www.SarahBarnard.com.