For harmonious development, it is important for the child to receive a variety of emotions and sensations. Life in a modern urban environment is largely divorced from nature and natural physical activity, so often you have to look for additional opportunities to gain the necessary motor and sensory experience. One of the ways to fill the lack of sensations can be sensory rooms for children.
Destination
The sensory room is a special room designed to stimulate perception through the senses. It is often called a relaxation room, but relaxation is not limited to its value. Thanks to special equipment in the sensory room, an environment is created that helps a person to act in the right way on eyesight, hearing, smell, touch, which helps to find harmony with oneself and the world, teaches you to pay attention to the work of your body and to understand the shades of your sensations.
The importance of the sensory room for children lies in its developmental value. The fact is that sensory perception plays a particularly important role in the first years of life: children get to know reality through the senses and this affects not only their physical and mental state, but also brain formation. If the child does not receive the necessary sensations, this will adversely affect his development and in the future can lead to a variety of problems. A sensory room can help a child gain relevant experience: here, while playing, he trains his vestibular apparatus and fine motor skills, discovers a variety of tactile sensations, sounds, colors and smells. This contributes not only to the normalization of the mental state and improvement of the senses, but also to the manifestation of interest in the world around and the development of abilities.
In the sensory room, children feel safe, so they can openly express themselves, experiment, create, try new things. There may be classes that develop thinking, imagination, social skills. Work with children in the sensory room takes the form of a game, the main thing here is to arouse sincere interest and openness of the child.
Views
Sensory rooms are divided into two types: passive (dark), which relax and soothe, and active (bright) - tonic and stimulating to action. This difference is achieved through the use of different stimuli. For example, the relaxation room is usually darkened, there is upholstered furniture that takes the form of a body, and soothing music sounds. Its purpose is the harmonization of the psychological state, recovery from stress, rest, relaxation.
Active sensory rooms, on the contrary, tone up the child and charge him with energy. Active games and physical exercises are held there, aimed at developing general and fine motor skills, sensory perception, as well as thinking, creative and social skills. These rooms are illuminated by daylight or bright electric light, there can be used intense sound and color effects with interactive properties that change depending on the actions of the child, touch panels, a variety of textured surfaces and objects - that attracts attention and prompts action. Active sensory rooms for children can have sports elements (for example, various exercise machines) for physical education and games.
It is rather difficult to combine in one sensory room both calming and stimulating elements, however it can be divided into different zones: passive and active.
Necessary equipment
Equipment for the sensory room for children depends on its purpose.
The furniture in the passive sensory room, which takes the form of a body, is comfortable and safe, the floor and walls are often finished with something soft (rugs, bedding). There can be used massage devices that promote muscle relaxation: a variety of massage equipment and rollers. Much attention in the passive sensory room is given to lighting devices. Its soothing atmosphere is achieved through the use of sources of dim, but bewitching light: fiber optic fibers, air bubble columns, light fountains, projectors.
An active sensory room typically uses bright lighting and tonic sounds. There may be a variety of simulators for training balance and muscle stimulation, kits for outdoor games. One of the most popular elements of the sensory room (both active and passive) is a pool filled with plastic balls. The game in it is accompanied by unusual sensations similar to the feeling of weightlessness, and is a good training of the vestibular apparatus, coordination of movement and fine motor skills. Also, specific devices are used in the active sensory room, for example, touch or light-sound interactive panels, screens for painting with sand.
Equipment for sensory rooms for children with disabilities should take into account their characteristics (for example, something may not be accessible to a child in a wheelchair simply technically), but in general they are intended for everyone: for children and adults, for healthy or disabled people .
Classification of sensory stimuli
An important feature of the sensory room is the simultaneous effect on different senses. At the same time, it is possible to combine different directions of sensory stimulation in order to create a complete picture for a person, teach him to link his senses together, pay attention to how they strengthen each other or, conversely, weaken. Let us consider briefly each of the directions.
Sense of smell
A method that works with odors is called aromatherapy. In sensory rooms, essential oils are most often used (however, you can try using the plants themselves, for example, giving your child a sniff of an orange peel or a fragrant and prickly sprig of pine - this will be both an olfactory and tactile sensation). Depending on the purpose, the smells are divided into tonic (citrus, bergamot, rosemary, lemongrass, etc.) and relaxing (mint, frankincense, sage, lavender, etc.).
Vision
The directions that work with what we see are light therapy, or color therapy. Working with light is especially important in the dark, when a lack of sun causes the so-called seasonal depression. The brightness of light affects our condition tonic, and its absence euthanizes. You can also use different colors to influence the psychological mood. Warm (orange, red) - stimulate, and cold (blue, purple, green) - soothe. In addition, working with color can be a good diagnosis: your favorite colors and color tests show the psychological state of a person, his unconscious feelings.
Hearing
A method that works with sounds and music is called sound therapy. Sound is a wave that not only affects the eardrum (therefore we hear), but also resonates with our internal organs; this is the basis of its therapeutic effect. Properly selected music can relieve pain, relax or, conversely, excite. In classes with children in the touch room, you can use everything that sounds: various instruments, drums, bells, interactive sounding panels. This therapy is also active and passive, in the first case, the child plays a musical instrument himself, or somehow creates different sounds, in the second - he just listens.
Touch and vestibular apparatus
Various bodily practices work with movements and touches. Working with physical sensations is important not only for muscle training, but also for a harmonious psychological state and development. Sensory rooms are well suited for the development in children of the correct physical activity, motility, touch, training of the vestibular apparatus. Here the child is free to experiment with his body: somersault, play in a dry pool, walk barefoot on different textures and so on.
Why do we need sensory stimulation?
Everyone can get this or that positive effect from working with their senses. Moreover, depending on the characteristics of the person, the result will be different: for example, hyperactive children in the sensory room help to cope with excessive excitement, and the closed child can open up and learn in a safe environment to show interest in the outside world and other people. Therefore, more and more often sensory rooms, or their individual elements, are installed in child care facilities, shopping and entertainment centers, hospitals, and boarding schools.
Indications for sensory stimulation can be psychological difficulties (for example, isolation, anxiety), disorders in the field of motor activity (muscle tension), problems with the sensory organs. For children with disabilities, the sensory room will help to get the sensations that they lack in their normal lives. For example, for children with autism or cerebral palsy, sensory correction is an essential part of treatment and rehabilitation. For disabled children, the sensory room is all the more important because there they receive a positive emotional charge that helps them deal with ailments and undergo unpleasant medical procedures.
You cannot visit the sensory room in the presence of infectious diseases, and you need to take into account individual characteristics: for example, with neurological disorders it is important to use light and sound effects with caution, because they can provoke an exacerbation (for example, an epileptic seizure).