SENSORY HAUS
Lighting issues
There was no blinds in the room we had the opportunity to use which made it difficult to create darkness which meant it was not possible to use coloured lighting. When we received feedback from the sensory haus demonstration one of the main things participants said they would’ve changed about the sensory room was the fact that it was too bright. Minguillon et.al (2017) discussed the benefits of blue light in comparison to white light. They conducted a study in which participants took part in a stress session and then after either went into a chromotherapy room with either blue or white light. The results were that blue light accelarates relaxation at a much faster rate than normal white light. If we were creating a sensory room again in the future we would make sure we could create a space with coloured lighting as previous research indicates it increases relaxation and it is what participants were looking for.
Noise Level
We had planned to take 8 people at a time into the sensory room but the way it happened on the day was that the whole class ended up coming to the sensory room at once and as the class are all friends the noise level was a bit high. As it was a sensory room some people would’ve preferred for the room to be silent. It potentially would've been better in smaller groups or one at a time as research indicates that less people in a sensory room usually yields better results.
More
To create our sensory haus we all brought in items from home, therefore we didn't have many of each element. The weighted blanket was very popular and included in some of the feedback was that they would've liked there to have been more than one. As there was more people in the room it meant that people had to take turns using some of the equipment in the sensory room. If we were to do this project again we would definitely insure we had enough of each element for the amount of people as it may have increased enjoyment and made the experience a little bit better.