Have you heard of a portable, inflatable, and affordable Multi-Sensory Therapeutic Environment (MSTE)? Well, there’s a first for everything. The Sensory Box is the first mobile MSTE of its kind, offering a welcome, affordable option.
A MSTE contains equipment and materials designed to stimulate one’s senses through light, sound, touch, and smell. It is used by therapists in various disciplines like occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech-language therapists, remedial therapists, educators and psychologists and supports the treatment of a wide range of challenges including autism, developmental delays, brain injuries, ADHD, anxiety, and other neurological disorders.
Bellavista School, a leading independent school and non-profit organisation (NPO) catering for school-going children who have learning barriers, opened the first school-based MSTE in South Africa. The school collaborated with the Beit Issie Shapiro Centre, a global leading developer and provider of innovative therapies for children and adults with disabilities in this venture, and has subsequently trained its staff as trainers in the Issie Senses Methodology.
Since then, several MSTEs have been installed across the country – with a significant impact felt by those who have accessed this intervention. However, this type of facility requires a significant investment, which limits the reach and scale of MSTE.
With this in mind, the school collaborated with HUBO Studio, an award-winning architectural studio, to launch The Sensory Box with the focus on schools and paediatric medical spaces and how to make the therapeutic tools more accessible.
The Sensory Box, as a MSTE, provides a safe, focused, and intentional space for therapeutic intervention in which the client can control their sensory input. The MSTE was created using biomimicry – a method that emulates the designs and ideas found in nature, to create optimal solutions to challenges faced by humans. The Sensory Box mimics nature’s retreat to safe spaces for regulation, such as a tortoise retreating to its shell – it creates a womb space. Through conducting therapeutic sessions inside a MSTE such as The Sensory Box, the likelihood of achieving the therapeutic goals is increased with the help of an enabling therapist.
Designed according to the same principles as other MSTEs, The Sensory Box offers a different but more affordable alternative to MSTE’s that are built on-premises and are immobile. It can be used in both urban and rural settings, measures just 3 x 4m, and is inflated in just 40 seconds – instantly transforming the space into a MSTE. Deflated, it fits into a car boot for ease of transportation.
For more information, or to set up a demonstration, visit sensory.co.za or call 082 449 3602.
