Saturday, March 21, 2009

Snoezelen!

Snoezelen rooms have recently come to my attention (actually, they came to my attention a year or so ago when I had a woman from my church tell me she thought I had a sensory integration disorder...make of that what you will, but there is the fact that I tend to be very sensitive to hyperstimulation. I do OK with things generally, which is good since 3rd and 4th year will basically be defined by 'hyperstimulation.').
They are simply these soothing, gentle rooms designed to help chill out people with developmental disorders, with a smorgasbord of subtle, calming sensory experiences available for the client who's using the room. They've been studied in this capacity, and actually appear to work for autism and Alzheimer's Disease (though of course a double-blind randomized controlled trial isn't possible in this case, which leads me to wonder if perhaps we don't need an alternate paradigm for assigning validity to studies; not a complete overhaul, just some new ways of looking at things that aren't so "pill vs. placebo"-centric). I really want one, or to spend some time in one, maybe...There are dim lights, but also things to look at--from my webcrawling it appears tropical fish tanks are popular--tactile experiences like padded walls (no jokes, please), pillows, satin and chenille throws; auditory experiences like soft music or the sound of rain or a babbling brook; Sometimes it's even possible to incorporate smells.
In the meantime I suppose I'll make do by lighting a tuberose candle, covering my lamp with a scarf, and wrapping myself in my fleece throw. It's not the same, but it'll have to do.

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