Snoezelen

The things you find on YouTube...

I often watch YouTube videos (don't we all?) and today, the related links on the side took me to some videos about something called Snoezelen.

Wikipedia tells me this:

Snoezelen or controlled multisensory Environment (MSE) is a therapy for people with autism or developmental disabilities. It consists of placing the person in a soothing and stimulating environment, the "snoezelen room". These rooms are specially designed to deliver stimuli to various senses, using lighting effects, color, sounds, music, scents, etc. The combination of different materials on a wall may be explored using tactile senses, and the floor may be adjusted to stimulate the sense of balance.

Originally developed in the Netherlands in the 1970s, Snoezelen rooms have been established in institutions all over the world and are especially common in Germany, where more than 1200 exist.

The rest here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snoezelen

In looking at the videos, they sort of reminded me of some our setups in our homes. In some of the videos, you can see what look like Mathmos Projectors (with the oil wheels), bubble lamps, motion lamps and fiber optic lamps. You don't see any lava lamps, but that makes sense since they get very hot and a lot of these rooms are geared towards children who will want to touch things.

Videos here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8WT_CMz3FY&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmYQ6ev_J7c&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8doQvPjBiQg <--- really cool

Just thought it was interesting.

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Permalink Reply by Tim Gill on February 28, 2012 at 11:45am

I know what you mean - my mum runs a nursery and they have recently made a 'sensory' room like this complete with plasma lamps, Mathmos jelly, Mathmos projector etc.

On a more personal level its quite touching really as having developmental disorder (dyspraxicia) I can really relate to what they are saying about the room and its benefits. I think that the sensory environment of lights and colour etc sparked my interest of lava lamps and lighting when i was younger. I just wish that something like this was there in school in my school days (not that long ago).

Thanks for finding this Erin.

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Permalink Reply by Erin on February 28, 2012 at 4:42pm

How cool Tim! I bet that's great for the kids.

I'm glad to see people thinking outside of the box to help those who are different. :) We don't all learn the same way or go through life the same way.