Why Assessment
01/09/11 13:51
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 10:07AM
Why Assessment?
Assessment, a word to strike a degree of apathy into the heart of any one linked to education or any other target driven field of support, where the use of assessment has been done to death. Hang on though take some time to have a quick browse at this blog as there are some really important reasons why we should be considering assessment in terms of multi-sensory work.
There are two obvious reasons for assessment. One is to ensure that what we are doing is of some use to the student. We need to ensure the person we are working with is making progress so we need to provide activities that challenge but are also not beyond the individual’s capabilities. Secondly we need ensure that what we are doing is not actually causing those we work with any harm. It is this second aspect that I want to discuss, firstly by considering how we could actually cause harm in our sensory work.
In general terms there are three levels of response to sensory stimulation. The majority of us present with an average response, we are well tuned to sensory stimulus and only react adversely when the stimuli is presented at extreme levels, too loud, too bright or too heavy, say in the case of touch. For a smaller proportion of the population hyposensitivity and hypersensitivity presents problems. People who have additional needs are far more likely to present with ‘hypo’ or ‘hyper’ sensitivity issues than the general population and so it is extremely likely that at some point you will be working with someone with a different sensitivity pattern.
So what does ‘Hyposensitivity’ and ‘Hypersensitivity’ actually mean. The term ‘Hyposensitivity’ is used to describe the state where an individual needs much more of any particular stimulus before they will sense it. This can be in some circumstances very dangerous particularly if they are hyposensitive to touch. The condition makes them insensitive to pain and means that they can hurt themselves without being aware. Such an individual may tolerate heat to the point at which the skin may burn before reacting. ‘Hypersensitivity’ is the opposite, where a relatively small amount of the stimulus is required and normal levels of sound, light or touch can become painful. Many autistic individuals display with either and sometimes both sensitivities. Often the challenging behaviour exhibited by a child with autism has a direct correlation to a sensory stimulus that other children would not be aware of. I have worked with many such children who find the noise levels in an early years classroom setting so noisy as to cause anxiety. The build up of anxiety can create sufficient stress that it leads to aggressive behaviour a manifestation of the fight or flight scenario. Many parents of children with autism, ADHD or other similar neurologically based additional needs report such difficulties when out shopping, often in supermarkets overloaded with sensory stimuli.
So we will be working with individuals who are hyper or hypo sensitive but a greater problem is that it is very likely that the majority of adults they come into contact with will have no knowledge of their sensory needs.
It is necessary then to understand or assess the individual’s threshold for sensory experiences. The most common process in schools and centres is the logging of incidents and seeing a pattern over time. This, however, means that we are placing that individual on a regular basis in a situation where they become anxious on a regular basis. Far better surely that where we suspect a sensory problem some form of assessment is carried out initially. Where vision or hearing issues are suspected it may be possible to turn to services for visual impairment or hearing impairment for specialist help. If you do go down this route ask if possible for a functional assessment not just an acuity test. If such support is not available then initial sensory sessions can easily be structured as an assessment. A multi-sensory room if you have access to one is the ideal place to conduct such an assessment owing to the control over the range of sensory stimuli.
Consider exploring the individual’s response to light at varying levels, do they seek it out or do they avoid it. Start with simple torches, easy to handle, easy to control, consider using other safe sources such as fibre optic lights. If such light levels cause no problems move to stronger light sources such as rotating projectors, pin spots. The assessment is always seeking to identify the same aspects; the minimum level to elicit a response and those situations where the individual tries to avoid the stimuli. You may wish to consider the impact of different colours, moving light, flickering light.
A similar process should be undertaken for the other senses, touch, consider the pressure needed to elicit a response. Some individuals may really try to avoid any physical contact with other people; others may really enjoy this form of contact. Different materials can create different responses and not always the typical response we would expect. Some people may react adversely to soft fluffy sensations and may prefer rough coarser sensations from hard resistant materials.
Sound too needs careful assessment both for volume but also for the type of music. I personally could never relax to the sound of panpipes nor would I find crashing waves and the trumpeting of whales particularly conducive to relaxation. So if the whole purpose in the sensory room is to calm down an agitated individual their personal preferences are extremely important. Sound volume and sound frequency to is of importance.
Don’t forget that for many of us we can make our own personal decision about the level of stimuli we expose ourselves to, either by communicating to others that it is too loud, too bright, too hard or by simply walking away. For many of our clients this is not an option and their communication may come through their behaviour either switching off or getting angry.
Why Assessment?
Assessment, a word to strike a degree of apathy into the heart of any one linked to education or any other target driven field of support, where the use of assessment has been done to death. Hang on though take some time to have a quick browse at this blog as there are some really important reasons why we should be considering assessment in terms of multi-sensory work.
There are two obvious reasons for assessment. One is to ensure that what we are doing is of some use to the student. We need to ensure the person we are working with is making progress so we need to provide activities that challenge but are also not beyond the individual’s capabilities. Secondly we need ensure that what we are doing is not actually causing those we work with any harm. It is this second aspect that I want to discuss, firstly by considering how we could actually cause harm in our sensory work.
In general terms there are three levels of response to sensory stimulation. The majority of us present with an average response, we are well tuned to sensory stimulus and only react adversely when the stimuli is presented at extreme levels, too loud, too bright or too heavy, say in the case of touch. For a smaller proportion of the population hyposensitivity and hypersensitivity presents problems. People who have additional needs are far more likely to present with ‘hypo’ or ‘hyper’ sensitivity issues than the general population and so it is extremely likely that at some point you will be working with someone with a different sensitivity pattern.
So what does ‘Hyposensitivity’ and ‘Hypersensitivity’ actually mean. The term ‘Hyposensitivity’ is used to describe the state where an individual needs much more of any particular stimulus before they will sense it. This can be in some circumstances very dangerous particularly if they are hyposensitive to touch. The condition makes them insensitive to pain and means that they can hurt themselves without being aware. Such an individual may tolerate heat to the point at which the skin may burn before reacting. ‘Hypersensitivity’ is the opposite, where a relatively small amount of the stimulus is required and normal levels of sound, light or touch can become painful. Many autistic individuals display with either and sometimes both sensitivities. Often the challenging behaviour exhibited by a child with autism has a direct correlation to a sensory stimulus that other children would not be aware of. I have worked with many such children who find the noise levels in an early years classroom setting so noisy as to cause anxiety. The build up of anxiety can create sufficient stress that it leads to aggressive behaviour a manifestation of the fight or flight scenario. Many parents of children with autism, ADHD or other similar neurologically based additional needs report such difficulties when out shopping, often in supermarkets overloaded with sensory stimuli.
So we will be working with individuals who are hyper or hypo sensitive but a greater problem is that it is very likely that the majority of adults they come into contact with will have no knowledge of their sensory needs.
It is necessary then to understand or assess the individual’s threshold for sensory experiences. The most common process in schools and centres is the logging of incidents and seeing a pattern over time. This, however, means that we are placing that individual on a regular basis in a situation where they become anxious on a regular basis. Far better surely that where we suspect a sensory problem some form of assessment is carried out initially. Where vision or hearing issues are suspected it may be possible to turn to services for visual impairment or hearing impairment for specialist help. If you do go down this route ask if possible for a functional assessment not just an acuity test. If such support is not available then initial sensory sessions can easily be structured as an assessment. A multi-sensory room if you have access to one is the ideal place to conduct such an assessment owing to the control over the range of sensory stimuli.
Consider exploring the individual’s response to light at varying levels, do they seek it out or do they avoid it. Start with simple torches, easy to handle, easy to control, consider using other safe sources such as fibre optic lights. If such light levels cause no problems move to stronger light sources such as rotating projectors, pin spots. The assessment is always seeking to identify the same aspects; the minimum level to elicit a response and those situations where the individual tries to avoid the stimuli. You may wish to consider the impact of different colours, moving light, flickering light.
A similar process should be undertaken for the other senses, touch, consider the pressure needed to elicit a response. Some individuals may really try to avoid any physical contact with other people; others may really enjoy this form of contact. Different materials can create different responses and not always the typical response we would expect. Some people may react adversely to soft fluffy sensations and may prefer rough coarser sensations from hard resistant materials.
Sound too needs careful assessment both for volume but also for the type of music. I personally could never relax to the sound of panpipes nor would I find crashing waves and the trumpeting of whales particularly conducive to relaxation. So if the whole purpose in the sensory room is to calm down an agitated individual their personal preferences are extremely important. Sound volume and sound frequency to is of importance.
Don’t forget that for many of us we can make our own personal decision about the level of stimuli we expose ourselves to, either by communicating to others that it is too loud, too bright, too hard or by simply walking away. For many of our clients this is not an option and their communication may come through their behaviour either switching off or getting angry.
Why Sensory
16/08/11 18:46
This is the first of hopefully a series of short discussions about working with children and adults on sensory related aspects. I hope that they can stimulate some discussion with others adding ideas and thoughts. Maybe even challenging our views as that is how we learn and move on.
Clive Smith
As a starting point.
Why is there the need for sensory work?
It may seem an unnecessary question, “Why do we need to teach sensory?” but in all aspects of education and life a large amount of time and effort is devoted to developing sensory skills or improving sensory experiences. What is the role of the senses in our lives?
From conception to death our lives are governed by the sensations we experience. Within the womb sound and vibration impact upon the developing child. At birth, light and touch burst into the child’s sensory experiences. Very quickly smell and the ability to sense warmth enables the infant to locate and find nourishment in the form of the mother’s milk. Right from the start our senses are there to ensure our safety and survival and so it continues throughout life. Sight, touch, hearing, smell, taste and the vestibular and pro-prioceptive senses all combine to ensure our safety and survival.
For some individuals though the sensory development is impaired, maybe physically, damaged or imperfectly developed vision or sound. The infant may have physical impairments that restrict it from interacting with his or her environment to develop pro-prioceptive or vestibular skills. The way the brain develops is now understood better than ever. At birth a child free from any physical trauma has the potential to develop the skills to do anything. The brain, however, develops on a ‘use it or lose it’ principal. Constant use of the sight, sound, touch neurons reinforces and builds upon those neural pathways. For the child not using the relevant senses, the neurons in that part of the brain will not develop necessary connections for critical functioning and thus may impair sensory functions further.
So we need our senses to ensure our personal survival but at an early age, our senses help us in an all together different direction. We begin to develop an appreciation and enjoyment of our world and our role in it. We distinguish between danger and safety and those sensory experiences linked with safety eventually take on connotations of pleasure. Blue skies and sun equal warmth and comfort, the smell of baking or food cooking equals sustenance. Harmonious sounds mean unrushed or gentle creation of sound not the crashing and loud impact of danger.
So our senses were initially developed to help us identify safety and danger and to keep us safe. Whilst throughout our lives they continue to provide this function of greater apparent importance to individuals are the sensory experiences that stimulate or relax us. These are the sensations we go out of our way to seek. We seek them because they improve our quality of life. Mood lighting, specific soft and harmonious music is often used after a stressful day to calm our turmoil down or bright flashing lights and bass heavy rhythmic sounds to liven up our moods. We use these effects continuously in our personal life. Using and manipulating the senses plays a very important part in all our daily lives. We seek specific foods not for nourishment but for the pleasure we take from their tastes, smells and appearance.
So sensory abilities are important for health and wellbeing, at every level we need to be able to use all our senses and to improve our quality of life we should be able to make choices based on our sensory ability and preferences.
So there is a definite need for the inclusion of sensory work into our curriculum and a need for all establishments to include multi-sensory work in their approaches to learning.
Clive Smith
Clive Smith
As a starting point.
Why is there the need for sensory work?
It may seem an unnecessary question, “Why do we need to teach sensory?” but in all aspects of education and life a large amount of time and effort is devoted to developing sensory skills or improving sensory experiences. What is the role of the senses in our lives?
From conception to death our lives are governed by the sensations we experience. Within the womb sound and vibration impact upon the developing child. At birth, light and touch burst into the child’s sensory experiences. Very quickly smell and the ability to sense warmth enables the infant to locate and find nourishment in the form of the mother’s milk. Right from the start our senses are there to ensure our safety and survival and so it continues throughout life. Sight, touch, hearing, smell, taste and the vestibular and pro-prioceptive senses all combine to ensure our safety and survival.
For some individuals though the sensory development is impaired, maybe physically, damaged or imperfectly developed vision or sound. The infant may have physical impairments that restrict it from interacting with his or her environment to develop pro-prioceptive or vestibular skills. The way the brain develops is now understood better than ever. At birth a child free from any physical trauma has the potential to develop the skills to do anything. The brain, however, develops on a ‘use it or lose it’ principal. Constant use of the sight, sound, touch neurons reinforces and builds upon those neural pathways. For the child not using the relevant senses, the neurons in that part of the brain will not develop necessary connections for critical functioning and thus may impair sensory functions further.
So we need our senses to ensure our personal survival but at an early age, our senses help us in an all together different direction. We begin to develop an appreciation and enjoyment of our world and our role in it. We distinguish between danger and safety and those sensory experiences linked with safety eventually take on connotations of pleasure. Blue skies and sun equal warmth and comfort, the smell of baking or food cooking equals sustenance. Harmonious sounds mean unrushed or gentle creation of sound not the crashing and loud impact of danger.
So our senses were initially developed to help us identify safety and danger and to keep us safe. Whilst throughout our lives they continue to provide this function of greater apparent importance to individuals are the sensory experiences that stimulate or relax us. These are the sensations we go out of our way to seek. We seek them because they improve our quality of life. Mood lighting, specific soft and harmonious music is often used after a stressful day to calm our turmoil down or bright flashing lights and bass heavy rhythmic sounds to liven up our moods. We use these effects continuously in our personal life. Using and manipulating the senses plays a very important part in all our daily lives. We seek specific foods not for nourishment but for the pleasure we take from their tastes, smells and appearance.
So sensory abilities are important for health and wellbeing, at every level we need to be able to use all our senses and to improve our quality of life we should be able to make choices based on our sensory ability and preferences.
So there is a definite need for the inclusion of sensory work into our curriculum and a need for all establishments to include multi-sensory work in their approaches to learning.
Clive Smith
Sensory Approaches and EBD
15/07/11 18:00
I am often asked about working in mainstream education and multi sensory approaches with Emotional or Behavioral Disorders. Clive Smith is a good friend who has had many years working in the field of PMLD, but he now works in mainstream education in the UK specialising in Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. Here is a reply to an email I passed on to him a couple of weeks ago.
Richard Hirstwood
To an extent I do target specific children because I am using the equipment in mainstream primary schools. The target group there are pupils whose behavioural problems stem from anxiety issues and the allied low self esteem. I am using the equipment to support relaxation for the emotionally vulnerable. I am not targeting it for children where the prime behaviour is acting out attention seeking behaviour.
The equipment is in reality a 'hook' to get the children involved. So I tend to use the 'glitzy' stuff - bubble tube, fibre optics, projector & mirror ball. The kids love these, particularly the fibre optics - tense kids will play with the fibres constantly if I let them. I also use relaxation specific articles - subtle lighting in restful colours to provide a colour wash in the room, aromatherapy diffusers, appropriate background music - that is anything at a tempo that is conducive to rest.
The kids respond well to many of the 'Chill out' cd's, classical chill out 'gold' includes the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, which seems to strike a chord. The bulk of a session is about visualisation exercises and I do use a data projector with appropriate scenes as I find initially they struggle to visualise and a scene of a beach, snow or forest helps. I've not needed them for long.
A typical session will be based on a circle time structure with six pupils, the emphasis is always about feeling good about yourself and others. A relaxation session based upon a visualisation topic, which is followed with some deeper relaxation material to achieve a minimum of two minutes silent contemplation. In general it has only taken me two sessions to get them to this stage.
I use the lights sound and effects to bring the group back to a more active level. We then allow a free five minute exploration of the equipment. Most opt for hugging the bubble tube or playing with the fibre optics. Sometimes I have used a switched lighting system. The session is finished of with a more practical element, making their own wheels, adding to a collage in the room depicting their thoughts and feelings, often with pictures of favourite places.
So the room is obviously timetabled, once children have become experienced in using the techniques to relax there should be an element of 'on demand' as either reward or a place to calm down. These sessions have generally been half an hour.
Outcomes are the kids look forward to the sessions, they access a relaxed state more quickly and under their own control and they talk about themselves and others in a more positive manner.
If this is any use to you or if you have other questions let me know and if you are trying out stuff let me know what you are doing.
Hope it was helpful!
Clive Smith
Richard Hirstwood
To an extent I do target specific children because I am using the equipment in mainstream primary schools. The target group there are pupils whose behavioural problems stem from anxiety issues and the allied low self esteem. I am using the equipment to support relaxation for the emotionally vulnerable. I am not targeting it for children where the prime behaviour is acting out attention seeking behaviour.
The equipment is in reality a 'hook' to get the children involved. So I tend to use the 'glitzy' stuff - bubble tube, fibre optics, projector & mirror ball. The kids love these, particularly the fibre optics - tense kids will play with the fibres constantly if I let them. I also use relaxation specific articles - subtle lighting in restful colours to provide a colour wash in the room, aromatherapy diffusers, appropriate background music - that is anything at a tempo that is conducive to rest.
The kids respond well to many of the 'Chill out' cd's, classical chill out 'gold' includes the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, which seems to strike a chord. The bulk of a session is about visualisation exercises and I do use a data projector with appropriate scenes as I find initially they struggle to visualise and a scene of a beach, snow or forest helps. I've not needed them for long.
A typical session will be based on a circle time structure with six pupils, the emphasis is always about feeling good about yourself and others. A relaxation session based upon a visualisation topic, which is followed with some deeper relaxation material to achieve a minimum of two minutes silent contemplation. In general it has only taken me two sessions to get them to this stage.
I use the lights sound and effects to bring the group back to a more active level. We then allow a free five minute exploration of the equipment. Most opt for hugging the bubble tube or playing with the fibre optics. Sometimes I have used a switched lighting system. The session is finished of with a more practical element, making their own wheels, adding to a collage in the room depicting their thoughts and feelings, often with pictures of favourite places.
So the room is obviously timetabled, once children have become experienced in using the techniques to relax there should be an element of 'on demand' as either reward or a place to calm down. These sessions have generally been half an hour.
Outcomes are the kids look forward to the sessions, they access a relaxed state more quickly and under their own control and they talk about themselves and others in a more positive manner.
If this is any use to you or if you have other questions let me know and if you are trying out stuff let me know what you are doing.
Hope it was helpful!
Clive Smith