The use of multisensory environments favours the emotional, behavioral and cognitive state of many people, being a great ally as a therapeutic tool for working with the elderly. A sensory room helps to fight the progressive sensorial, motor, cognitive and social impairment that this group may present, providing emotional well-being through appealing stimuli.
SHX technology for multisensory rooms allows to cover every type of intervention that can be worked inside a room thanks to the contents and environments provided which serve as inspiration and as a valuable tool for therapists to propose activities and exercises, either therapeutical, leisure or educative. Thanks to this type of rooms we have the chance to stimulate the different senses with activities suitable for every single person, implying different cognitive, social and sensoriomotor processes, since the SHX rooms are totally interactive and customizable (through the edition mode). Thus, the elderly will be more active and participative, slowing down their deterioriation and fomenting their good spirits and positivity.
New immersive environments for the elderly
The new SHX environments for the elderly make it easier for the therapist to stimulate their spirits, deal with the emotions and propose exercises for cognitive stimulation with the support of motivating scenes and contents which reach them through the different sensorial channels in a coherent way.
Stimulation Exercises
Let us recomment various stimulation exercises for the elderly. They have been designed by our occupational therapists in order to offer you tools and ideas for the intervention inside the SHX sensory rooms.
- Surrounding environments
Stimulation of moods: Evoking the positive emotions of the elderly. We let ourselves be embraced by the warm music and the surrounding lighting that, when passing through the room, becomes white, green, blue and cold, leaving us in a space of relaxation and harmony. We can also choose an option of yellow and orange tones that turn red hot, creating a festive and fun atmosphere while we hear the rhythm of trumpets singing the Charleston. These activities help the elderly to regulate a certain state or induce certain moods, like relaxation or activation, to participate in the activity and, in result, encourages autonomy.
- What’s this sound?
Auditory Agnosias: These scenes present us different sounds for working the auditory agnosias (inhability to recognize sounds) with the elderly. We are in the sensory room and suddenly we hear the peaceful murmur of the sea, or the bells coming from an old church far away. These sounds have a matching image that we can see later so that they can be identified. Through these scenes we can work the ability to recognise stimuli through the auditory channel and give them meaning too. 
- How much do you know about cinema?
Memory stimulation: Do you remember Chaplin and his particular sense of humour? These contents for projecting in an SHX room are all about classical movies, so that the elderly can access their long-term memory, identify the movies and talk about them while they have fun. The user pushes the switch to control the scenes on the screen, or we can play it randomly to make it a surprise. These immersive scenes not only favour the memory processes, but they also imply other processes like attention, language, orientation, experiences, boosting good spirits and the preservation of their personal identity.
- Keeping the daily objects
Memorization/Categorizations: Do you remember where we keep the medicines? And what about the shirts? Images, words, sounds, lighting and effects to ease the entrance of the information through different channels and also to work with the daily objects in order to keep their level of connection with their environment.
- The perfect recipe
Selective attention: Culinary ingredients on the screen help us to work language, memory and attention. By working with this type of language and objects, we help the elderly to better manage their daily activities.
- Charming cars
Declarative memory: Can you recognize this car? With these scenes they can recognize and remember cars they had at some point. These contents help the therapist to work memory and interaction and address key aspects to keep the cognitive ability and slow down apathy and disconnection from the environment that might be consequence of a dementia or any other neuro-degenerative disease.
These are only some of the ideas for the therapeutic intervention with the elderly. However, the SHX System allows to customize the existing environments and create new environments thanks to its edition mode.
More information
If you want to know more about the SHX Sensory Rooms, contact us now and our expert therapists will be happy to inform you. You can also find us at: www.bjliveat.com.
