Interacting with the groundbreaking and award-winningmotion-activated projection systems produced by Britain-based OM Interactive can bring many rewards to users of all ages and all levels, particularly those with special needs.
And the experience can be enhanced by digging into an activity kit that accompanies all purchases of any OMI system, including the Mobii Magic Surface, known, for short, as the Mobii.
This goodie bag, filled with accessories including paintbrushes, balls, bean bags and soft fabric batons, can be used with a wide variety of applications, and in a number of different ways.
An activity kit for the Mobii Magic Surface
Adding the use of any or all of these items not only offers more ways to have fun with an OMI system, but can also increase tactile sensations, improve extended reach and shoulder range of motion, boost concentration, and, overall, elevate engagement.
With some swipes of the accessory paintbrushes, users could turn a variety of images, such as flowers or butterflies, from black and white into vivid colours.
Or a bean bag could be tossed onto a projection of an egg, causing it to crack wide open.
With an accessory baton, a user could break up and scatter a school of fish in one application, or swipe correct answers to quizzes in another.
The accessory ball could be pitched at floating feathers to break them up and make them flutter away.
A week of “theme days” could be created to vary up activities. For instance, one day could be devoted to applications that can use a bean bag; another day could turn to activities using a ball.
The accessories can be used to enhance the projections in many ways. One idea is to create “theme days” throughout the week. For instance, a calendar using the Mobii could look like this:
Mindful Mondays: Have participants use the accessory kit paintbrush to colour in a series of fish.
Tuesday tosses: Create some fun competition by having participants toss bean bags onto underwater targets and add up the points for a winning score.
Wet and wild Wednesdays: Participants can use a magnetized rod to go fishing in a virtual body of water.
Thursday throws: Roll a ball across a virtual xylophone, eliciting different sounds as it crosses various keys.
Friday fun facts: Create fun across the generations with bright and simple quizzes that engage both young and old.
Letting imaginations and creativity run free will guarantee users a fun, engaging and beneficial experience with the combination of the projection system and the accompanying activity kit!
A sensory room is a therapeutic space for people of all ages to enjoy and use. These rooms and spaces incorporate a number of different tools or aspects that can help an individual to feel more calm, less distracted, better able to communicate and overall, less anxious and stressed. They can also help to mitigate negative behaviours that may be common with some people, often school-aged children.
The equipment used in a sensory room can vary quite a bit from one room to the next, depending on how much space is available for the sensory room and what the needs are of the primary person using it. Whether you are looking at creating a mobile sensory cart or station or are able to convert an entire room to the idea, the intentions behind the equipment will be similar.
Top equipment for creating a sensory room or space
At SensoryOne, we provide no-fee design consultation services so clients can build the sensory space that is best suited to them. Whether for autistic individuals, seniors or an elementary school setting, let’s think through the design and equipment right for you.
When creating a sensory space, one of the first steps you should take is to decide how much space you’ll have to work with. If you only have a small corner in a room or a mobile cart to deck out, the equipment you’ll look for will vary in comparison to if you have a whole room. Regardless of how much space you have, creating a sensory room will have significant benefits for both children and adults.
Tactile equipment
Having items that a person can touch is essential in a sensory space. Try to include a variety of different touch experiences such as soft sponges, prickly pinecones, gooey silly putty or slime, kinetic sand, finger paints and squishy balls. Any item that offers an unusual tactile experience can be perfect for a sensory room. If you have space to play with, consider installing a tactile wall mural or panel. These tools are often done for you so there’s no need to go searching for items that might fit the bill.
A tactile wall mural, tile or panel features a variety of textures, colours and styles and will double as fun artwork for the space. These pieces can be mounted on a wide variety of surfaces, allowing you to customize the sensory space you are creating.
Calming equipment
One of the most common uses of a sensory room is to help visitors calm down and relax. Equipment like dim lights, fiber optic lighting, and gentle music are all soothing for those in the sensory room.
Fiber optic lights are a common choice for anyone creating a sensory room. These lights are often included in string form to offer both tactile and visual stimulation, allowing anyone in the room to benefit from their inclusion in multiple ways. Handling these lights is safe and visitors will often feel calmer and more relaxed after being exposed to them.
Bubble tubes and walls are another great way to provide calming visuals along with a relaxing vibration.
Auditory and visual equipment
A sensory room that allows users to focus on certain senses while reducing the stimulation from others will help them to relax and calm down. Sensory room equipment like a projector or a speaker playing their chosen video, music or sounds can significantly benefit a visitor, particularly those who struggle with processing disorders.
Mobile sensory carts
If space is a concern or you have an individual that would benefit from the ability to bring their sensory space with them, a mobile sensory cart is the perfect option. Whether you’re interested in a ready-made kit or want to design your own, a mobile sensory cart has everything that a sensory room could have, but in a compact and portable cart. This cart can be moved from one space to another allowing the sensory space to move with the user.
Interactive technology is worth the investment
With immersive projection technology, any room can instantly become an immersive sensory room space.
With a very interactive space like a sensory room, it’s no surprise that there are some pieces of technology that will be beneficial. Immersive experiences like virtual reality and interactive projectors are an excellent way to customize the sensory room experience for anyone interested in using them. These interactive and portable technologies are very effective tools for creating both stimulating and calming effects in a wide variety of settings and spaces. A sensory room that includes one or both of these tools will benefit anyone who uses them in a number of different ways.
Sensory room equipment can vary greatly
The best thing about creating a sensory room is that there is no single right way to do it. The best sensory room spaces are created with your client audience in mind. With a wide variety of potential users, completely unique space options and an endless list of equipment choices, no two sensory rooms will ever be alike. After you’ve taken some time to evaluate the needs of those who will be using the space and consider what kind of area you’ll be making use of, you can then narrow down exactly what kind of equipment you want to include in your sensory room.
When it comes to technology, jokes abound about how seniors interact with it.
But, all laughs aside, the latest advances in technology can offer huge rewards to older adults who are living in retirement and long-term-care homes or attending day programs. They can be especially beneficial to seniors with special needs, including those with dementia.
When seniors interact with these groundbreaking, innovative and state-of-the-art devices, they can receive a remarkable array of mental, physical, social and emotional benefits.
INTERACTIVE AND IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGIES
The technologies include a pioneering, award-winning, interactive motion-activated projection systemfrom a British company called OM Interactive.
It beams sounds, images and music from a wide variety of applications onto different surfaces, including tables, floors, ceilings, even bedside tray tables or bedsheets.
The device is accompanied by hundreds of applications, including various activities and games, that are projected. When users interact with them, they are transported on a variety of dynamic, engaging, stimulating and broadening journeys of discovery.
The other remarkable piece of equipment is the latest advance in virtual reality technology, called the BroomX MK360. Made in Spain, this all-in-one VR system beams a video that stretches across three walls and onto a ceiling all at once, creating a captivating, fully immersive audio and visual experience.
Being surrounded on all sides and wherever your head can turn makes you feel like you are right in the moment, gripping the senses of both seeing and hearing. The BroomX virtual experience is not only entertaining but engaging cognitively, emotionally and socially.
Both of these technologies can help foster great joy among older adults, significantly enhancing their overall health and quality of life. Here are seven ways technologies can nurture happiness in older users, which you can learn about by watching the video below, and/or reading the text below it.
STIMULATING THE SENSES
Both technologies deliver multisensory experiences, and stimulating the senses, especially visual and auditory, can be a powerful conduit to joy.
Imagine, for instance, being at a beach, gazing into deep blue water up to the horizon and listening to the rhythmic lapping of waves.
You could heighten the experience by adding in the use of other senses. For instance, what about having a real seashell beside you to touch, or a cool beverage to sip. Some aromatherapy using a diffuser to the fragrance emanating from a real plant could perk up the sense of smell.
VIRTUAL TOURISM
The secondway this technology can be used to foster joy is through what might be called “virtual tourism.”
For older people unable to really travel, whether because of restricted mobility, limited financial resources or other reasons, creating a simulated trip through these technologies could be the next best thing to being there!
Both the interactive, motion-activated and VR systems can open the world to seniors, taking them to new places for new experiences or returning to destinations they have already been to, reliving memorable past experiences that made them smile and will do so again.
The study found participants had a decrease in anxiety and an increase in happiness and excitement.
As an added benefit, caregivers can also take a much-needed virtual holiday, and enjoy the rewards of relaxation away from their daily workload.
BRINGING NATURE INDOORS
A third way this technology can promote joy is by bringing nature indoors.
We all know the exhilaration created by being in the great outdoors. For people whose access to nature is restricted by their health or mobility limitations, these technologies can bring the outdoors in.
Participants can experience simulated experiences in nature, standing in a forest, watching trees sway, light dapple among the treetops and birds fly, and listening to the chirping of those birds or whistling winds.
From these sensory experiences created indoors, participants can derive the same benefits as if they were really outdoors.
SOCIAL CONNECTIONS
These technologies can also promote social connections, both among fellow home residents and with staff.
It’s often much more fun to have joint experiences than solitary ones: the confidence built by the encouragement of others, the memories made with other people, the giggles induced by shared laughs.
These technologies offer a range of games and other activities that bring participants together.
Whether a virtual air hockey game stirs good, old-fashioned competition, or a simulated roller-coaster ride has everyone screaming and tossing their hands in the air with delight, connections are made and happiness is increased.
INTERGENERATIONAL INTERACTIONS
Lots of research has demonstrated how enriching interactions among different generations can be for both old and young. These technologies offer activities that they can easily — and happily — participate in together.
Playing the games and activities together can really reduce the generation gap, offering a variety of shared special experiences for seniors with children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren.
Such experiences can not only boost everyone’s moods, but make return visits from the younger generations to the older feel much more enticing and give seniors things to really look forward to.
CONTROL OVER THEIR ENVIRONMENTS
Both immersive and interactive technologies can give users a real sense of control over their environments — a feeling they don’t often get living in a retirement or long-term-care home.
Many of the applications beamed by the technologies are all about cause and effect by the user.
For instance, with one video, they swipe their hands over floating eggs, causing them to break. In another, they can step on a coloured ball and watch it splat. Having control over these effects can be very empowering.
NOSTALGIA AND REMINISCENCE
Finally, strolls down memory lane can do wonders for picking up a mood. Feelings of nostalgia and reminiscences can trigger all sorts of positive memories, bringing memorable moments back to life.
Motion-activated and immersive technologies can take users back in time, whether to their own actual pasts or to more general times and places that might stir happy memories.
These memories can be triggered by still images, moving videos, familiar sounds or even a virtual visit through Google Street View.
It’s tough getting older, no doubt, but the journey can be made much sweeter with these marvellous technologies. There’s nothing better than seeing joy on the face of an older person, thanks to these systems.
Sensory rooms are becoming much more commonplace in schoolsand homes. However, sensory spaces are not just for children. In fact, they are equally in demand in adult service settings.
These sensory-focused spaces offer significant benefits to a range of neurologically atypical people. Spaces often include a variety of sensory-stimulating objects such as lights, colorful items, things that make sounds, carefully chosen aromas and other different objects.
Which individuals will benefit from a sensory room?
Although it could be argued that everyone could benefit from a sensory room experience, there are people with a number of different conditions that will find these spaces especially helpful. They include:
Anyone with a cognitive impairment, such as dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. The world can be a very intimidating place for someone going through the changes that dementia can bring. A sensory room can help ease those struggles by providing a calm and kind space to relax in.
In acute or long-term-care homes and units. Sensory rooms in these settings can be helpful during a crisis situation that needs de-escalation or prevention.
In mental health clinics. Spaces where patients can immerse in a therapeutic and stimulantfree environment can be beneficial to the therapy.
Those with vision, hearing or other sensory impairments. A dark room can be soothing for someone who struggles with vision loss or impairment while interactive activities can help deaf people hone their other senses.
Those with developmental disabilities, A well-designed sensory room will provide many opportunities for those with developmental disabilities.
People with learning difficulties. Offering adults a space where they can take a break from their required activities and focus on learning in a manner that makes sense to them and doesn’t stress them out can help improve learning in their day-to-day lives
Benefits of a sensory room to adults
There are a number of benefits that adults will find when they get the opportunity to experience a sensory space:
Stimulation of the senses
A sensory room is designed to help users focus on and engage with their senses. Spending time in a quiet space that offers activities that they can engage with and explore can help an individual to better understand and interact with their environment outside of the sensory room.
The world is a very stimulating place and allowing an adult to control how much stimulation they get while in the sensory room can carry over some skills in how to manage those moments in the outside world.
Improve and develop communication skills
Some adults have a difficult time communicating both verbally and non-verbally. This is especially true for those with autism. A sensory room that provides interactive activities can help these individuals learn skills that will help them engage and communicate with their peers.
Reduce stress
The world can be quite overwhelming, stressful and unpredictable for an average person. Add to that a neurodivergent disorder and they could easily end up extremely stressed out and unsure of how to deal with it. The ability to spend time in a sensory room can allow the individual to immerse in a very low-stress, safe and controlled space, making the rest of the world easier to deal with when they rejoin it.
Improve ability to focus
Disorders like ADHD can make it difficult for some people to focus on tasks they are working on during the day. A sensory room that has various activities can help an individual to learn concentration skills that will help them to focus on tasks and improve those skills outside of the sensory room.
Encourage socialization
While a person might struggle to reach out and find common ground with some of the people around them each day, a sensory room can help encourage them to socialize on their terms. Many activities in sensory rooms can be enjoyed both alone and in groups. Allowing visitors to enjoy activities in a safe and stress-free environment can make it easier for them to interact with their peers.
Provide mental and physical relaxation
Even for individuals without a diagnosed issue, a sensory room can provide them a needed space in which to relax. Whether they’re in the midst of a hard work day, are dealing with a difficult situation in their personal life or are experiencing some sort of physical ailment, the calming effects of a sensory room can provide a necessary break.
Improve creativity
The opportunity to immerse in a space that has no expectations can encourage an individual’s creativity to flourish. Providing activities that will allow the user to engage, explore and have fun can stimulate areas of the brain that spark its creativity.
Sensory rooms in adult-care settings are vital
Although sensory rooms are often thought to be for children, adults who struggle in any aspect of their lives can experience the benefit of sensory rooms. For adults with diagnosed disorders, a sensory room can provide a therapeutic environment in which to work on some specific goals, while others may simply enjoy the ability to disconnect from the pressures of life in a safe and calm space.
The benefits of engaging with a dedicated sensory space don’t go away as most people age. Quite the opposite, in fact! Many seniors find that as they age, they are more likely to benefit from and enjoy spending time in a sensory room. Whether they are experiencing cognitive shifts or physical ones, there are many benefits to spending time in a sensory room.
Can sensory rooms benefit adults?
While the use of sensory rooms is common for children both at home and in school settings, they are invaluable tools serving disabled adults and seniors groups. Sensory environments are very beneficial for the elderly, particularly those challenged with dementia or other special needs.
The needs of adults will vary from those of children using a sensory room, but the benefits are quite similar. Sensory rooms and sensory stimulation can help adults:
Feel safe and comfortable in the space they are in
Have a comfortable space in which to experience therapy, either one on one or with a group
Participate in social groups and combat isolation
Engage in activities that improve cognition and functionality
Facilitate communication both with peers and their support system
Explore avenues for increased concentration, focus and alertness
Maintain physical abilities and dexterity
Learn skills related to problem solving, self-care, and crisis prevention and de-escalation
Sensory environments support neurodegenerative diseases
As people age there is a natural decrease in autonomy that can limit a person’s ability to maintain freedom and mobility. As this is often gradual, a person is usually able to get used to the restrictions as time goes on. However, when a neurodegenerative disease like dementia or Alzheimer’s takes hold deterioration in autonomy can become significant quickly, which leads mental struggle for the sufferer.
Sensory rooms are quite beneficial in these situations. When a person is frustrated with their newfound struggles, the ability to step into a sensory room and leave those frustrations at the door will offer a significant mental health break.
Spending time in a no-pressure zone with the opportunity to immerse in things that make them happy will leave a visitor better equipped to handle their changing lives outside the room. Therapy interventions for these individuals can also be easier to approach in a space where they are calmer and more relaxed.
How does technology improve sensory rooms?
Although a sensory room can be created using non-technological items, there are some extraordinary new tools on the market that can help improve a user’s experience.
Virtual reality is a great way to entertain and engage sensory room users. With the BroomX MK360 offering a completely immersive experience with no headsets, visitors can feel the calming effects of the tool just by stepping into the room. The images can be changed and customized to the user, allowing for a completely unique and targeted therapeutic experience. Virtual reality helps to engage a viewer emotionally, socially and cognitively, resulting in significant benefits especially in those with Dementia, Alzheimer’s, autism spectrum disorder and other special needs.
A projection system is another excellent piece of modern technology that can offer sensory room users a significant benefit. An Omi motion-activated projection system will display chosen images, sounds and music onto any flat surface for the enjoyment of the user. With a customizable display, users can experience cognitive, social, physical and emotional stimulation, resulting in a more calm and positive mood. This is especially helpful for those experiencing dementia, as the system allows the user to experience places and things that invoke happy and calming thoughts and memories.
Elderly people often experience a loss of senses
Often as people age, they start to experience a reduction or loss of some of their senses. A gradual loss of mobility, loss of hearing, loss of sight, and even loss of the sense of touch can all affect the mindset of a person. A sensory room offers a person the ability to retreat into a space where they are able to both focus on the senses they do still have full control over, and spend time gently stimulating the senses that are reducing. This focused and non-pressured attention can help users to feel more confident and comfortable in their everyday lives.
Sensory rooms are helpful for all ages
Although sensory rooms are commonly found in schools, there is significant benefit to exploring the opportunity to create them in long-term care and hospital settings as well. When a senior is offered the opportunity to take a pause from all the stressors in their life for a limited time frame, they are likely to return to the original scenario better equipped to handle it.
Elderly people and those dealing with varied needs and abilities are most likely to benefit from the variety of sensory stimulation found in sensory rooms. Technology like virtual reality and projection systems can help facilitators to provide a customized and focused therapy plan in order to assist the individual in their day to day life.
