Elsevier

Research in Developmental Disabilities

Volume 31, Issue 1, January–February 2010, Pages 160-171
Research in Developmental Disabilities

Multi-sensory rooms: Comparing effects of the Snoezelen and the Stimulus Preference environment on the behavior of adults with profound mental retardation

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2009.08.006Get rights and content

Abstract

The present study examined whether Snoezelen and Stimulus Preference environments have differential effects on disruptive and pro-social behaviors in adults with profound mental retardation and autism. In N = 27 adults these target behaviors were recorded for a total of 20 sessions using both multi-sensory rooms. Three comparison groups were created by diagnosis and motor respective linguistic abilities. Each client was exposed to only one multi-sensory room. Results showed that Snoezelen intervention decreased disruptive behaviors only in individuals with autism, while Stimulus Preference increased pro-social behaviors only in participants with profound mental retardation with co-occurring poor motor and linguistic abilities.

Furthermore, several trend analyses of the improved behaviors were conducted throughout all sessions toward short and mid term effects of the multi-sensory room applications.

These findings support both the prudence of using the Snoezelen room in individuals with developmental disabilities and the importance of using a Stimulus Preference assessment in multi-sensory environments in clients 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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