Sensory Rooms

What is a Sensory Room?

A Sensory Room is a place where children and adults can explore and develop their senses and skills. The multi-sensory room can have many different features.  Some of the many things often found in a sensory room include; fountains, fish tanks, soft music, many different kids of fun lights, soft scents, swings, bean bag chairs, along with much more.

What are the benefits of a Sensory Room?

A Multisensory room can engage children who can learn through play. From following bright lights, shapes and patterns with their eyes to pressing buttons to make the sensory room change color or even change color to music. Users will become interested in their environment. Also due to the flexible functionality of the multisensory room it can also be used to calm and de-stress.

Who can benefits from sensory rooms?

There are many different populations that can benefit from sensory rooms. The typical groups associated with sensory rooms include individuals who have PTSD, Stroke/TBI, Alzheimer's/dementia, Autism, along with cognitive or physical disabilities.

Ai Chi

The purpose of Ai Chi is relaxation.

 

What is Ai Chi?

Ai Chi is a water movement and relaxation program that has been created to help aquatic practitioners and clients enjoy the water in a flowing yet powerful progression.  It is an efficient exercise program that increases oxygen and caloric consumption simply with correct form and positioning in the water, it is a perfect relaxation technique for highly stressed, over-challenged clients, and it is ideal for creating improved range of motion, balance and mobility.

Ai Chi is performed standing in shoulder depth water using a combination of deep breathing and slow, broad movements of the arms, legs, and torso.

Participants are introduced to basic concepts of “Eastern Thought” such as circular movement, breath control, tranquility and moving with nature as they experience the upper extremity trunk stability and lower extremity movements and learn proper pelvic mechanics.

Appropriate Patient Populations

Ai Chi has been successfully used with pain management, scoliosis, carpal tunnel syndrome, hypertension, CVA, fatigue, eating behaviors, weight control, breast cancer patients, balance deficits, type II diabetes, back pain, cardiac and pulmonary rehab, COPD, cancer therapy, arthritis, fibromyalgia, congestive heart failure, fall prevention, prenatal, menopause therapy, immunodeficiency disorders, orthopedic problems, mastectomy, RSD, MS, migraine headaches, anxiety and depressive disorders, and anger management.

Long Group Activities

During class three groups presented their long activities. Our group did rhythm/music and the other two groups did arts/crafts and challenge-based activities. I really enjoyed the arts and crafts portion of the nights. For the activity we created altered books. We took old books and used different arts and crafts techniques to create our own unique book. There were many different stations set up that had innovative ways to decorate our books. There was a bubble blowing station with paint, a pop out window art station, and many more. Each station was very innovative and creative! I found that the class really got into this activity and the time really flew when we were making our books.

This is a fun activity that could be used with many different populations. It would be great to do this activity for kids, young women with eating disorders, youth-at-risk, geriatrics, along with many more. This is such a great activity to do because a lot people would enjoy doing this and it can easily be adapted to different populations. When working with children it would be beneficial to keep the arts/crafts at a simple level. Choosing options that don't involve a hot glue gun or x-acto knife would create a much safer environment. By doing this activity I learned all about how to create an altered book along with what populations it would be most beneficial for.

Making Musical Instruments.......

There are many benefits that music therapy can offer individuals. Music therapy can relieve stress and anxiety, ease depression, enhance self-expression, help patients cope with a disease/illness, provide sensory stimulation along with much more. Making musical instruments is one way to provide music therapy to clients or patients. Some easy to make instruments include; a homemade tambourine, xylophone, drum, chimes, horn, guitar, and hand bell.

To construct a Xylophone follow the directions below;

XYLOPHONE

• tall glasses or jars
• water
• mixing spoon

Fill the glasses or jars with different amounts of water. The more water in the glass, the lower the pitch will be. Having less water in the glass or jar will raise the pitch.
To play, gently strike the glasses with a mixing spoon.

For more information on how to construct the other instruments go to  http://www.kinderart.com/teachers/9instruments.shtml

There is a wide variety of instrument that can easily be constructed. Many of the instruments use household items or items that are fairly cheap to buy. Even though making musical instruments is typically geared toward children many different population can benefit from this activity.

Snowkiting........

Snowkiting is an outdoor winter sport where people use kites to glide over snow or ice. Not many people are familiar with this snowkiting but it has been around since the 1980's. Since then people have continued to improve the equipment and techniques which has created a more desirable sport. Many daring people use snowkites to fly off mountains, do freestyle tricks, and even jump off high cliffs. Snowkiting is a dangerous sport and should be practiced with a lot of caution.Today the sport has become increasingly popular in many different countries.

RELAX!!!!

During class we discussed different relaxation techniques and ways to reduce stress. I was introduced to laughter yoga for the first time. This type of yoga incorporates laughter while doing various exercises. The idea behind laughter yoga is that anybody can laugh for no reason at all and gain the positive benefits associated with laughter. Laughter Yoga has been used to help people cope with different disabilities they may have and generate a more positive attitude.

Here is a short clip to give you a better idea what Laughter Yoga is all about........

Meditation was another topic we covered during class. We discussed possible ways to incorporate meditation with different populations. An important point was brought up that highlighted the idea that meditation may not be for everyone. Some people are unwilling to try meditation because they believe it is against their religion. Although there are spiritual meditation techniques there is a wide variety of options available that do not relate to religion. It is also important to consider that proper meditation takes a lot of time and practice.

Guided Imagery was the next topic of discussion. This is a technique that guides a persons imagination. This is sometimes called "visualization" or even "mental imagery". This can be done as a leader describes an event/scenario with great detail allowing the participants to imagine what is being described.

Guided Imagery can also be done by watching a video clip as well. Here is an example to see what it is all about.

Virtual School....

During class we were presented with the idea of a virtual school. A speaker came and discussed the process of enrollment to the benefits of a virtual school along with much more. He focused a lot on how different a virtual school can be from a traditional public school. The cost of a virtual school is lower, the students are still allowed to participate in sports within the surrounding schools, the academic material is set to meet each individuals educational level, and he argued that students from a virtual school often have more time for recreation because they are able to complete their lesson plans on their own schedule.

Even though a virtual school may not be for everyone it is very beneficial for individuals who have a difficult time attending a public school due to behavior, health, or emotional problems they may experience. The most unique aspect of the school is how they develop an individualized Education Plan (IEP). This plan is developed by the staff after the students go through a series of assessment test. By doing this the student is able to learn  at the the level they need. The assessments are important in providing an overview of a students weaknesses and strengths in order to give the student proper lesson plans.

Another great point that he mentioned was that no matter what age the student is they are put into a program based on their educational needs. For example, if someone tests a few grades below their reading level it isn't as big of a deal in the virtual school as it would be seen in a public school. The virtual school takes away the added pressure of the peer relationship.

Therapeutic recreation isn't something that is commonly incorporated within the school system. Even though there are several positive benefits many students and faculty are unaware how effective a TR program can be.