Multi-sensory rooms: Comparing effects of the Snoezelen and the Stimulus Preference environment on the behavior of adults with profound mental retardation
Section snippets
Settings
The study took place in three different settings at the participants’ residential Institute: the living room, the Snoezelen room and the Stimulus Preference room.
The living room (5 m × 6 m), contained chairs, tables, a stereo, a television and two cabinets with leisure materials and manipulative objects (e.g., puzzles, games, markers, and balls). Some of the objects in this environment were present also in both multi-sensory rooms. Each participant had the possibility to interact freely with other
Results
Firstly, we computed medium frequencies value for all target behaviors for each experimental group in the living room, creating either Baseline pre- and post-treatment, in order to compare the groups who attended multi-sensory conditions with the control group.
Variance analysis were conducted for each group using pairwise comparisons and univariate tests focused on condition and pathology as parameters both for disruptive and pro-social behaviors.
With regard to disruptive behaviors significant
Discussion
Overall, this study supports the idea that multi-sensory interventions produce partial effect on the behavior of individuals with profound mental retardation and any improvements should be considered in the context of specific groups and target behaviors. The results displayed in Fig. 1, Fig. 2 suggest that the Snoezelen intervention has a positive effect, carried over to the control environment (living room), in decreasing the frequencies of aggressive and stereotyped behaviors mainly for the
Limitations
Although we addressed in this current study several methodological shortcomings from previous studies, there are limitations left to be considered. First, our work has to be seen as observational study where variables interfere and are not thorough controlled. For instance, individuals with profound mental retardation occasionally show problem behaviors when entering the multi-sensory room. In accordance with Mckee et al. (2007), the sessions were following the time schedules of the Institute.
Conclusion
The current study emphasized the need to use an experimental evaluation in order to avoid false positives in reporting the effect of multi-sensory interventions. It was demonstrated that the effect of the Snoezelen is significant only for individuals in certain target behaviors. Moreover, the importance of applying a Stimulus Preference assessment in the multi-sensory room was verified. Individuals with profound mental retardation are often exposed to a various amount of stimulations that they
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Prof. Marta Olivetti Belardinelli, Prof. Giulio Lancioni and Dr. Joe Hettinger for their comments on earlier versions. Dr. Fabrizio Giorgeschi is also acknowledged for his help in collecting data.
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