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Multisensory rooms: essential characteristics and barriers to effective practice

Multisensory rooms: essential characteristics and barriers to effective practice This paper aims to identify the characteristics practitioners consider essential to effective multisensory rooms and the barriers they experience when trying to realise the potential of such rooms.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents semi-structured interviews with 27 multisensory room practitioners from a range of backgrounds followed by analysis to identify key characteristics and barriers.FindingsEleven positive room characteristics were identified. The three deemed most significant were that the rooms are dark, activity associated and uninterrupted spaces. Two negative room characteristics were identified: inaccessible design and broken equipment. Ten barriers to effective multisensory room practice were identified and grouped according to themes of logistics, suboptimal usage and practitioner capabilities.Research limitations/implicationsThe research focuses on a small self-selecting sample, coded by one person acting independently of any institution. This is an under researched area which would benefit from further more rigorous investigation.Practical implicationsThis research enables practitioners to remove barriers to effective multisensory room practice and to focus on the characteristics most significant in generating benefits for room users. Understanding of the essential characteristics and potential barriers to effective practice will allow practitioners to better exploit limited resources of time, money and staffing.Originality/valuePast research into multisensory rooms has focused on specific user groups or specific multisensory environments. This research examined multisensory room practice across both a range of environments and a range of users, giving an original overview of current multisensory room usage in the UK. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Tizard Learning Disability Review Emerald Publishing

Multisensory rooms: essential characteristics and barriers to effective practice

Grace, Joanna
Tizard Learning Disability Review , Volume 25 (2): 9 – Jul 7, 2020
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9 pages

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Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
© Emerald Publishing Limited
ISSN
1359-5474
DOI
10.1108/tldr-10-2019-0029
Publisher site
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Abstract

This paper aims to identify the characteristics practitioners consider essential to effective multisensory rooms and the barriers they experience when trying to realise the potential of such rooms.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents semi-structured interviews with 27 multisensory room practitioners from a range of backgrounds followed by analysis to identify key characteristics and barriers.FindingsEleven positive room characteristics were identified. The three deemed most significant were that the rooms are dark, activity associated and uninterrupted spaces. Two negative room characteristics were identified: inaccessible design and broken equipment. Ten barriers to effective multisensory room practice were identified and grouped according to themes of logistics, suboptimal usage and practitioner capabilities.Research limitations/implicationsThe research focuses on a small self-selecting sample, coded by one person acting independently of any institution. This is an under researched area which would benefit from further more rigorous investigation.Practical implicationsThis research enables practitioners to remove barriers to effective multisensory room practice and to focus on the characteristics most significant in generating benefits for room users. Understanding of the essential characteristics and potential barriers to effective practice will allow practitioners to better exploit limited resources of time, money and staffing.Originality/valuePast research into multisensory rooms has focused on specific user groups or specific multisensory environments. This research examined multisensory room practice across both a range of environments and a range of users, giving an original overview of current multisensory room usage in the UK.

Journal

Tizard Learning Disability Review – Emerald Publishing

Published: Jul 7, 2020

Keywords: Learning disabilities; Profound intellectual and multiple disabilities; Intellectual disability; Multisensory room; Autistic spectrum disorder; Profound and multiple learning disabilities

References

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    Challis, B.; Kang, A.; Rimmer, R.; Hildred, M.
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    Fava, L.; Strauss, K.
  • Versatile sensory experiences for all ages: what is Snoezelen?
  • Multi-sensory environments: an exploration of their potential for young people with profound and multiple learning disabilities
    Mount, H.; Cavet, J.
  • Special school sight testing