Sensory Room

Our client at the Copper Country Intermediate School (CCISD) district requested an enclosure that would provide a dark and quiet environment for her students. The children are severely multiply impaired (SXI) with both cognitive and physical disabilities. The structure provides a dark and quiet environment to use their sensory devices. The environment will encourage the independence, success, and self-esteem of the children by incorporating visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli. These stimuli will also help the children by engaging them in physical activities and help them to develop an understanding of cause and effect relationships.

Impact

The SXI students have all had an opportunity to experience the sensory room in "stimulation" mode, where numerous lights, sounds and aromas fill the room. All eight students demonstrated an awareness of the new and improved environment. Differences in facial expression, body movements, changes in behavior (i.e. ceasing to yell, spit and rock), as well as utter shock have been observed. Aside from being "aware", students who generally hang their heads while in their wheelchairs actually held their heads in a neutral position and looked around the room for up to 7 minutes.

Future work with the sensory room will

• Make switches more accessible to all students
• Utilize the room for small group activities
• Decorate the room for holiday

Funding

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0079969 and/or a Research Experience for Undergraduate supplement. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.