Sensory Processing is the ability to integrate and modulate sensory information efficiently. Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) or Sensory Integration Dysfunction is the inability or poor ability to process, interpret, organize, and modulate. This challenge may present itself as under responsive, over responsive, or sensory seeking. You may notice someone who does not respond efficiently to his or her name being called (sensory under responsive). Or, perhaps you know someone who does not like to be touched (sensory over responsive). And we all know that special person who is touching, shouting, or perhaps jumping, and cannot seem to get enough input (sensory seeking).
What's amazing is that a sensory diet that provides the right sights, sounds, textures, smells, and movement can help most sensory challenged individuals regulate sensory information. We call these effective sensory tools filters. Think about a day at the beach, or a gentle rainfall. Whether you crave sensory input or not, a situation infused with nature can almost always help regulate sensory input. Yet, we don’t always have a beach, mountain, or river nearby.
A multisensory room to the rescue! A MSE is a highly effective environment that can provide the needed sensory diet, in one neat location, to one or multiple individuals.
Sensory Processing Is At The Heart of A Multisensory Room
A multisensory environment brings light, sound, touch, scent, and movement into one controlled environment providing the right sensory input. These sensations assist with sensory processing and act as a filter to help modulate incoming information. For example, a bubble tube can provide visual, auditory, and tactile input that is gauged for maximum sensory benefit.
Focus And Concentration Are Key Benefits
It’s not just a relaxation room. A multisensory room can change the chemistry in the nervous system, encouraging better focus and attention. Without all the stress from other erroneous input, focus and concentration can occur naturally. Using a tool such as fiber optics and a wireless environmental control switch, the user can change colors and draw their attention to the experience.
Sensory Stimulation Is For Your Choosing
You can choose the stimulation you prefer in a multisensory room: images projected on a wall, a sound panel, an LED tunnel and so forth. So you can create the environment you want and even change it around to meet the needs of different individuals using the room.
Enhanced Interaction Is A Benefit of a Multisensory Room
Using an IRiS Wireless Talker (Controller) and Listener (Sensory Equipment) can transform a room with sensory tools into a full multisensory room experience that encourages interaction. Use a Talker to change bubble tube colors, interact with a musical panel or soundboard, or flood the walls with color. This puts the room into the hands of the user and allows them to control their environment.
Motor Planning and Sensory Processing Go Hand In Hand
Learning how to control your environment is what we call motor planning: the ability to plan and execute an effective action. Sensory room switches and panels encourage motor planning and the result is something like forest bathing, or at the least, sensory bathing.