Sensory Integration with Snoezelen

The primary function of our senses is to help us experience and react to our surroundings. Our senses let us experience daily situations by seeing, feeling, smelling, hearing, and tasting.

What Are Our Senses?
The senses with which we are most familiar are:

Vision (Visual)—The visual sense provides us with details about what we see and helps us to define boundaries as our brain processes color, contrast, shape, and movement.
Touch (Tactile)—The sense of touch keeps us in contact with our surroundings. Touch is vital to our survival and is one of our modes of communication. From head to toe, our skin helps us feel temperature, light touch, deep pressure, vibration, pain, and so much more.

Smell (Olfactory)—The sense of smell is very powerful. We use the sense of smell all the time. Flowery, pungent, musty, acrid, and putrid—we identify many things by their smells. We also develop strong memories associated with smells.
Hearing (Auditory)—This sense provides us with details about the sounds we hear such as volume, pitch, rhythm, tone, and sequence.
Taste (Gustatory)—This sense is located in our mouths and gives us feedback on the different types of tastes: sweet or sour, spicy, salty, bitter, etc.

Two senses with which we may not be as familiar are:

Vestibular—This sense puts balance into our lives. It provides information about movement, gravity, and changing head positions. It tells whether we’re moving or still, as well as the direction and speed of our movement. We may even tell whether we are vertically or horizontally positioned—even with our eyes closed.
Proprioception—This sense processes information from our muscles, joints, and other body parts to provide us with an unconscious awareness of the position of our body parts in relation to each other—and their relation to other people and objects.

These seven senses work together to help us understand our environments
For example, to get into a car we:

Look at the door (visual)
Place our hand on the door handle (visual and tactile)
Squeeze the handle using the proper pressure (tactile and proprioception)
Pull the door open with the right amount of strength (vestibular, proprioception, visual, and tactile)
Hear the door opening (auditory)
Step into the car, step over the floor (visual, vestibular, and proprioception)

We take in information constantly through our senses. What we see, hear, feel, smell, and taste gives us information about ourselves and our environments. Our brains organize and interpret that information, and we respond with an appropriate action (regard, disregard, seek out, or avoid). For most of us, the process occurs automatically without cognitive awareness of what is taking place. For example, someone calls your name. You turn to face the person. Your brain tells you that that person is a friend and the voice is non-threatening. Your response is to smile and answer in a similar tone of voice. All the while, your brain is receiving input and processing the information.

A SNOEZELEN MSE may be used to educate, stimulate, relax, calm, or energize, as a multi-sensory experience or single sensory focus, simply by adapting the lighting, atmosphere, sounds, and textures to the needs of the client at the time of use. These environments transcend populations with its extraordinary flexibility, wide application, and positive outcomes. Moreover, a SNOEZELEN MSE offers a highly motivating environment for users to enjoy sensory activities that are meaningful and appropriate, facilitated and shared by a therapist, teacher, or caregiver.

How a SNOEZELEN® MSE Stimulates Our Senses

Vision (Visual)—The most common use of a SNOEZELEN MSE is for visual stimulation. It may be used to encourage awareness to light, tracking, and other visual skills.For example, bubble tubes may be used for tracking and fiber optics may be used to increase light awareness.
Touch (Tactile)—The SNOEZELEN MSE provides multiple tactile experiences. Different textures on panels, products such as balls, sponges, and brushes, as well as vibrating mats and massagers, offer head-to-toe tactile stimulation opportunities.
Smell (Olfactory)—The SNOEZELEN MSE is an excellent place to experience smell. Use the tranquil environment to set the mood, along with smells from aromatherapy kits or real objects such as oranges, apples, or fresh flowers.
Hearing (Auditory)—In a SNOEZELEN MSE, use music, instruments, or even movies playing through a data projector to experience sound. Whether using a CD player, stereo, radio, or data projector, remember to move it around the room to let all participants experience the differences in volume as a result of a change in proximity.
Taste (Gustatory)—Our sense of smell is closely tied to our sense of taste. Although there is no specific equipment in a SNOEZELEN MSE to stimulate this sense, you may present participants with simple-to-eat foods that they enjoy once they have achieved a state of relaxation. Be sure to check for food allergies before introducing any new activity.
Vestibular & Proprioception—Walking across a floor covered with mats in a SNOEZELEN MSE incorporates both the vestibular and proprioceptive senses. Use the furniture in the SNOEZELEN MSE to help participants experience these senses. Beanbag chairs and the Leaf Chair are great for providing vestibular and proprioceptive stimulation.