{"id":15915,"date":"2020-02-23T20:02:22","date_gmt":"2020-02-24T01:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/?p=15915"},"modified":"2020-02-22T15:30:43","modified_gmt":"2020-02-22T20:30:43","slug":"sensory-room-at-jefferson-houston-given-a-boost-in-preschoolers-memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/?p=15915","title":{"rendered":"Sensory Room at Jefferson-Houston Given a Boost in Preschooler\u2019s Memory"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Daniel MacDonald was just six-years old when he passed away in 2018, but thanks to a $10,000 donation from his family, he has left a legacy at Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 IB School that will benefit other children.<\/p>\n

His parents, Laura and Don, reached out to ACPS to make the generous offer in the months after their eldest son died from complications due to a severe epilepsy disorder.<\/p>\n

They chose to support the school\u2019s sensory room because it was one of the places where Daniel, who had profound disabilities, found happiness.\"a<\/p>\n

Now, ACPS is able to add and update equipment and ensure the facility is in its best shape possible to serve other children.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would be noticeably brighter after his sessions in the sensory room,\u201d said Laura MacDonald, an Alexandria realtor who has two other children.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe definitely really enjoyed his time there and he seemed to really enjoy being around other kids. The social interaction lifted him.”<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough he was non verbal, I could read his facial expressions and moods and it was very clear to me the benefit he received from his time in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniel was enrolled in a peer model preschool program run by ACPS known as Preschoolers Learning Together, where typically developing children are educated alongside youngsters with special needs.<\/p>\n

He attended the morning sessions whenever his health allowed.<\/p>\n

During those hours, he spent time in the specially designed sensory room \u2014 a gently lit space which serves a variety of students with differing challenges and needs.<\/p>\n

\"daniel<\/p>\n

Similar to a soft play room, it features padded, comfortable flooring, a combination of textures, colorful lighting, and objects that stimulate as well as calm.<\/p>\n

Daniel died two years ago, a life that his loved ones feared would be cut short due to the nature of his condition.<\/p>\n

The youngster deteriorated in early 2017 following a bout of pneumonia and complications that followed.<\/p>\n

Palliative care then became the focus of his treatment in the months that followed.<\/p>\n

Daniel’s mom Laura said, \u201cHis graduation from preschool in 2017 was emotional. I knew it was unlikely that he would be able to attend kindergarten and this would be his last experience of school. But that experience, although short, was a great one for him.”<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore he died we started to think of ways to help.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just seemed that donating to the sensory room would benefit kids with a host of different issues and it seemed a very positive thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the coming months, ACPS will host the MacDonalds at a small event at Jefferson-Houston and officially thank them for their contribution.<\/p>\n

Theresa A. Werner, ACPS Executive Director of the Office of Specialized Instruction, said, \u201cWe are very grateful and honored to have received the donation in memory of Daniel MacDonald.”<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look forward to sharing the new sensory room with everyone once the materials have been received.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daniel MacDonald spent many happy hours in this special place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":15921,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,26,58,59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acps","category-jefferson-houston","category-pre-k","category-special-education"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-19 06:56:49","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15915"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15951,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15915\/revisions\/15951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acpsk12.org\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}