Ep 119 | Sensory spaces: More than a playground?

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Our students all day long, they have significant cognitive impairments. And we're telling them, okay, it's time for lunch, it's time to do this. But when they go to Snoozeland, it's their choice. And it's one of the few areas where times of the day where they get to go pick where they want to be. And so I think that's powerful as well.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

That's incredibly powerful. That feels like the whole point to me. Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every student in Escambia County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support every student's success. If you have a child with autism spectrum disorder, you know how challenging it can be to engage them in learning and behaviors required for the neurotypical world. This is not only frustrating for you and your child, it can lead your child to STEM in ways that may hurt themselves. My next guests are the principal and occupational therapist at Westgate, an Escambia County public school for students with intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorder. Today, these two ladies will be sharing how a specially designed space called the Snoozelin Center is helping students and families make serious headway in both behaviors and learning. At 13,000 square feet, it's the largest brick and mortar center in the U.S. And it's right here in Pensacola. They're going to give us a peek into the difference it's making and how you can create your own sensory space at home. Championing, championing, is that right? Championing, championing. Championing. Thank you. Championing children and pioneering progress. Kathy Rudd and Lindsay Sullivan. Thanks for being here, ladies. Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us. And welcome back, Kathy. Thank you. So, Lindsay, let's start with the name Snoozlin. Because it's interesting. It's different. What's the significance of the name?

SPEAKER_00 2:05

It is. So I love to tell this, uh, especially when we're giving tours because it is interesting. Um, it's uh a Dutch word, two words, uh snufflin and duzelin, which are even more interesting. Um, but together they make snoozlin, and they mean to uh seek and explore and to relax. And that's in what language? Dutch. In Dutch. Oh, okay. So it's um that's the goal of a snoozlin center for the participants to seek and explore or to become more relaxed. So snuffling and doozlin. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

I'm impressed that you were able to just say those right off the right off the bat. It's been a few years, so you've had practice. Why that specific name? Is it a a brand? Why did why is it decided that it was named that? How did we get there?

SPEAKER_00 2:59

So my understanding is that uh in the Netherlands there were two Dutch therapists, and it was uh like a summer fair um with tents and things. And so these two therapists said, you know, we want to have this sensory type tent, and they had different components. I think I read um like some lights and some uh fans that blew paper. Um, and so they had such a positive outcome with the people that stopped by their tent and used it uh that they carried on and they decided to coin the term snoozlin. And um, so that's a brand of a sensory space now. I think that was 1970, also that it started. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

And Kathy, can you kind of paint a picture of what this space looks like? It's a standalone building. Walk us through, we open the doors, what do we see?

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Well, and ours has a special name too. It's the Lacey Collier Sensory Center because he was paramount in us getting the funds to build the center. But you walk in and there's a beautiful atrium, and the atrium area sort of matches what the rooms opposite them would look like, and then you enter down a hallway, and the hallway um is also decorated for the room. For example, our first room is jungle, and so that area is all plants and animals, and the um jungle room has a wooden bridge and trees and creat uh jungle creatures, and um the um then we have a space room, and that room has the slide in it, and some a giant spaceship and other features. Then we have a magic room, and that is um probably more of a technical room, wouldn't you say, in a way? Um, like so um, and then our last room is polar, and that is where we have the polar bears, the igloo, and it's all in like blues and whites and grays, like you were at the in Antarctica or somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Wow, that sounds really special. It's very special. I it also sounds like the most amazing playground ever, but this is therapeutic. Can you kind of explain how this isn't just a play space that's very fancy?

SPEAKER_00 5:20

Yes. Uh, so it it does look like a playground. I like to describe it um almost Disney-like, so it's magical from you know the floor to the ceiling. Um, but yes, and it's not a playground, although it looks like one. Uh so we we educate our staff, um, all of our teachers, all of our support staff are trained on what is a multi-sensory complex. So it's affecting our students' bodies, it's it's um, you know, altering them on a neurological level. Um, and we want them to understand what they're looking at when they're observing their students, um, so that they're not using it as a playground. And they are using it more therapeutically and they understand that um they can carry that information that they receive about their students into their classroom. And um, you know, their students are more successful across their whole school environment. So they are trained to use it as a tool, essentially. Correct. Yes. Um, and so it's just part of their toolbox um that they can use to support their students um moving up to uh learning.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Can either of you give me an example of what kind of therapeutic effect it would have on a student? Because you're an occupational therapist, Lindsay, Kathy, you're the principal at Westgate. In your world, this makes perfect sense. But for an outside person listening to this and visualizing what you're describing, they may have a hard time understanding why this isn't just nice. Like, tell me why this is important.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

Well, we have like one student in particular was um doing a lot of self-injurious behavior. He was scratching his face, pulling hair, hitting himself, biting. Um, he was always marked up, you know, from where he was breaking the skin with his nails, or and as as he started going to snoozlin, he became less and less um elevated, we like to call it escalated. He was able to calm himself without um doing those kind of behaviors. And the his parents, in fact, were so impressed that they have a whole room in their house now devoted to a um sensory, and they were able to know what to select because of what he had chosen and what he preferred to do at Westgate in the sensory center. It's not a one size fits all what some child needs, another child might steer away from. So that was part of what Lindsay was talking about, the training that the teachers have to go through.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

So the teachers are not only able to use the spaces as tools, but use it as I would say, like observational recommendations to the parents. Is that right? They could. That's really interesting. What's the go ahead, Lindsay?

SPEAKER_00 8:20

I was gonna say that um they do after they're trained and if they're bringing a their class over, uh, they do have a form that they fill out. So they're thinking about their students and it's not one size fits all. Um, and so they may know that their one of their students doesn't like the loud noises. So they have a paper that they can indicate that they do not want the music on, for example. Or if they have a student who um maybe becomes a little bit uh disorganized and dysregulated with a lot of lights, they may select on this paper that they don't want the bubble tubes on. And so they're filling that information out based on what they know about their students, um, and they turn that in before they come to the complex. And so I will turn on a room according. So if maybe we have a student who doesn't like the overhead lights to be off, and the teacher will say, you know, leave the lights on. And so I'll have the room kind of ready. And so the teachers really have to investigate. They have to know, you know, there's sensory preferences for their students.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

So that sounds so special. I mean, that's kind of exciting that that support is not only there for the students, but it's there for the teachers that must make their job easier.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

I think so. I think most of them.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

And another thing that's cool about when they go to snoozlin is our students don't get a whole lot of opportunities to make choices. Adults are making choices for our students all day long. They have significant cognitive impairments, and we're telling them, okay, it's time for lunch, it's time to do this. But when they go to snoozlin, it's their choice. And it's one of the few areas where times of the day where they get to go pick where they want to be. And so I think that's powerful as well.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

That's incredibly powerful. That feels like the whole point to me. I mean, you know, when you feel like you have autonomy over your life, you are, I mean, even if you're neurotypical, you feel calmer. You feel uh, you feel prepared for what whatever's next. You feel like more flexible for the unknown. Right. What's the research behind spaces, sensory spaces for kids who have um intellectual disabilities or ASD?

SPEAKER_00 10:38

So there's a lot of research. Uh, there still needs to be a lot more, but I think the research that's out there has set the stage for further, you know, research into sensory spaces and snoozlin specifically. Um, in 2011, I know that uh University of West Florida, so here in Pensacola, they did conduct some research specifically on our snoozlin center. So that's very cool. Um, I think there were 50 participants. Um, they looked mostly at behaviors, um, and they their conclusion was that there was a decrease of overall adverse behaviors, similar to the story that Miss Red shared. Um and so that's encouraging for sure. Uh sensory spaces in general, there's positive indications. I want to say it doesn't work for everyone, so like it is not a one-size-fits-all. So there needs to be more research uh specifically for different diagnoses. There's the intellectual disabilities, um, autism. There's even research on uh people with dementia. So some elderly people, um, I like to just say it's from birth to death, they have uh really researched each category. Um, and some of it indicates that maybe it doesn't work um great for certain populations. I was reading one study, I think I share with Miss Red, uh, I thought it was pretty fascinating. So they took um a population of people that had traumatic brain injuries, so uh CP, TBIs, and uh they studied an EEG on each individual. So that's where you have the leads, uh the sticky pads, you know, kind of on your head and it's studying your brain waves. And so they studied the information from these EEGs before and after the participants' visit to a snoozlin or a multi-sensory complex, and they found an overall calming or relaxation effect on the participants. Um, I don't know the technical terms for some of the wave, the wavelengths and that kind of thing, but they saw a decrease in some frequency of wavelength wavelengths that indicate stress or you know, not a calm person. So I thought that was pretty fascinating. I feel like I could use that.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Right, right, exactly. Everyone. I mean, there's definitely in your work. This is a question for both of you, since you we were talking about yeah, for everyone, and we could all use this. Do you feel like the things that you learn from the Snoozeland Center and the students' interaction from the Snoozeland Center, is there crossover for what we all could learn about ourselves from them?

SPEAKER_02 13:31

Oh, I think so. Um well, yeah, I think so because it's funny. Um, since I've started at Westgate and paid more attention to sensory, I've been able to diagnose my sister, which is very helpful. I mean, every sister wants to diagnose her sister. So, but no, you're just more aware, it makes you more aware of sensory, and um you don't really realize how important sensory is. I always thought sensory was just the five senses that you learn in school, you know, taste, touch, smell, and it's way more than that, and it's way more comp uh complicated how it affects our body. So, yes, I can you give an example? Ooh.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

Um what's uh you give one, Lindsay. Okay. So beyond the five senses I like to say that we learn about in kindergarten, uh the most important ones for our students at Westgate, and possibly, you know, any students that are have have a challenging sensory need, um, the vestibular sense and the proprioceptive sense, right? And this is why we train our our staff because it is very complicated. Um, but that's more movement. Um, and our our snoozling complex offers a variety of movement. Um which one is movement? The vestibular? Both. Vestibular is kind of your balance in your inner ear. Okay. Um, proprioceptive is like in your muscles and your joints. Um, so again, movement, but more like how you're moving and your your speed and your force.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

So is that why stemming would be like we all stem to some degree, right? We all have something that we do when we feel nervous and consciously or subconsciously, we're trying to comfort ourselves. Is that connected to those senses that you just said?

SPEAKER_00 15:22

It could be, yes. You're so you're by, you know, tapping your leg or tapping on the table in a meeting. You're just trying to stay focused and stay uh organized and regulated. And so that's yeah, it all works together. We're taking input from everywhere. Um, and sometimes you know, you don't have to have a diagnosis, um, but sometimes people have trouble taking that input from the environment and remaining organized and remaining calm or able to learn. So yeah, it's very, if it's very complex. I wanted to add too that when we do our training, uh, we of course take all of our teachers over to the snoozling complex. And there's so many sensory checklists out there, but we give them a checklist for themselves and ask them to participate in the equipment. So if they're going down the slide or they're jumping or they get in the ball pit, uh they can select how each uh activity made them feel. That's what we're asking them to do, you know, when they're with their students.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Um, so it's it's it's complex, but um is this open to the public that they could do the exercise that you just described? Unfortunately, it's not.

SPEAKER_02 16:38

Okay. Um you know, Westgate is a public school and our students pretty much use the Snoozlin Center all day. Um, we have it um available for when a student becomes unregulated and needs to go into the room with an assistant, and also classes are always using the Snoozlin Center. But that's the beauty of sensory. Every family can have a sensory area in their home. And all our um varying exceptionality classes, they all have access to sensory items as well. So this while Snoozlin is a fabulous, fabulous place, that's not the only way to deliver the sensory, take care of sensory needs. It can just be a small closet or a classroom or a corner of a classroom.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Well, that's the perfect segue because I know Lindsay, you had a few inspirational ideas for how parents can create a sensory space in their home. So can you share those?

SPEAKER_00 17:37

Yes. So um most recently we did a little space in a classroom. So I'm I'm thinking of that, and it could be in a home, in a closet or a room. Um, but going back to that proprioception and vestibular, uh, I would include some type of movement in that space, whether it's um uh like a rocking chair, you could have just a regular rocking chair. Uh, they make special uh gaming type chairs that rock. Our kids like those. Um, you could have a little trampoline. Um, you could even just have uh one of those like yoga exercise balls, uh, that would be movement. And I'll tell you, the student, the kid will likely know what they need to do really and how they need to use it. Okay. So um I would I would have some movement. I would have uh I really like uh some auditory input. So if you have some sounds or sound machine or some music, um, and then what else? Visually, you could really fabric or a sequin wall or um I love the sequin wall idea. Yeah, the sequin wall. I'm partial to that. The sequin wall is like those pillows, you know, that you exact and they change color the whole wall. They're I would never leave that room. So you just get the fabric off off of Amazon. Okay. Um, get the fabric on Amazon and just hang it up. And then it also pairs um with something tactile so that they can touch, like if it's a sequin pillow, it's uh visual and tactile. Um so yeah, there's a lot of options to set up a space catered to your specific, you know, child, a lot of resources online.

SPEAKER_02 19:17

So you could get carpet samples or different flooring samples um and put them together on a board, or depending on how much you can sweet talk from a carpet place and have different squares, different parts of the floor, because if they have different textures, that's um, you know, something that your student would like. And about the auditory, I just wanted to add that the student has to be able, or your child has to be able to turn that auditory on or off, or up or down, or you're just forcing a noise that they may or may not want to hear at that time.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

Oh, that's so smart. I was just looking at the sound panels behind you and thinking, oh, that would be a neat sensory um element because they're foam and they're uh like jagged. They have like little triangles in them, so you can touch them and it's kind of satisfying. There's lots of uh possibilities here, which is really exciting. Before we wrap, are there any more success stories that either of you would like to share?

SPEAKER_00 20:18

I have I have a lot of success stories just because I'm there in Snoozlin and I'm in the classrooms. Um, and the benefit to educating our staff on sensory and that it's not just the playground, they really are investigating and they're seeing what works for their student. Um, and so I'll have a teacher that'll say, you know, when we go to the space room, you know, my student really enjoys this. And how can we get something like that in our classroom? Uh so recently we had a student, we just got him, it was so simple, it was just a big therapy ball. It was just a big yoga ball. And so brought it to his class, and she sends me, you know, feedback, uh, and that he can sit on the ball and participate in some of the academics. Uh, whereas before he struggled a little bit with like a classroom chair. Um, so just tons of stories like that, where they're finding out what works, what their student's sensory preference is, and taking that to the classroom and working their way up to uh, you know, more successful academic learning.

SPEAKER_02 21:24

And if I could share one, this one's cool because it's actually what um created the push to develop the sensory center was when um there was a student, she was um intellectually disabled. People always think autism, but it works for everything, but um, she would not move. She had very limited movement. And they at this time they just had a small closet corner of the room, and she started um reaching and moving towards the fiber optic lights, and the progress that she made was incredible. This child never moved, and this the sensory, the lights and that room, the environment. Um, she learned to move and crawl, and um, that would not have happened without well, as far as we know, it was not happening until she saw the fiber optics and just wanted to reach for them, and she was drawn to that. So that was pretty cool. When they saw the result of that, they said, no, we have to do more, we have to have a bigger building, we have to, and that's how the whole thing started. That's a highly motivating environment.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

And highly out of outside the box. You know, that's what I love is with the what you're describing. I'm really having this picture in my mind of um teachers and staff that aren't thinking so much in, you know, formula, they're thinking like um in a creative way, a problem-solving way. It makes me think of Odyssey of the mind, actually. You know, how they're like, this is the problem. Right. And so, you know, your staff and the teachers are trying different things in order to have the best outcome for the students. And I I love that, Lindsay, you shared some ways that parents can have that sort of adapt that mindset in their own home with sensory spaces.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

Thank you, ladies, so much for for coming today. I appreciate you. Where can people learn more about the Snoozlin Center um online?

SPEAKER_02 23:21

We do have it as part of our Westgate webpage. And also the Snoozlin Foundation will be um going to organizations soon because we're starting a new fundraising campaign. Sensory is expensive. And um, so there'll be we'll be doing presentations and stuff in the community as well.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

Okay, so keep an eye out for the presentations, and in the meantime, we can visit the website which I'll have linked. Yes. Thank you, ladies. This is great. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share. Voices United in Education is a production of Scandi County Public Schools.