Estimulació multisensorial en un espai snoezelen en persones adultes amb greu discapacitat intel·lectual

Identificador:  TDX:746

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TDX746

Autores:  Cid Rodríguez, María José

Resumen:
The main goal of the thesis is to assess the effect of multisensory stimulation on adult people with profound mental disabilities. The work includes an in-depth review of the scientific literature concerning the effects of multisensory stimulation and an experimental study with 23 individuals. The literature review showed that there is little work aiming to quantify the effects of multisensory stimulation in a systematic and objective way. The experimental work was carried out in a Snoezelen room, where stimuli can be programmed and controlled. This is a space specifically designed to produce basic multisensory stimulation to disabled people, through vestibular, tactile, visual, auditory, olfactory and other sensations, in order to increase the quality of life (defined through several quantifiable variables).A new methodology to quantify the effect of the Snoezelen sessions on individuals has been developed by defining and measuring several variables before and after the session. The general hypothesis is that the participation of profound mentally disabled people in Snoezelen sessions increases his quality of life. This global variable is measured through several response behavioural variables such as disruptive behaviour, motivation level, activity level, emotional wellbeing and relaxation level. Other measured variables were heart rate, smiles, visual attention and pleasure vocalizations. These variables were measured before starting the session, at the end of it and 30 minutes after. A total of 1618 individual sessions were analyzed in order to determine statistically significant differences in the measured variables using the non-parametric Wilcoxon test.Results showed a significant increase of the quality of life of most of the individuals after the Snoezelen sessions. The variables related to emotional wellbeing and relaxation level increased significantly in a major portion of individuals, and the effect lasted at least 30 minutes after the sessions. The disruptive behaviour decreased significantly in 65 % of individuals 30 minutes after the sessions; the motivation level increase significantly in 69% of individuals; the activity level changed significantly (increased or decreased) in 43% of individuals; the emotional wellbeing increased significantly in 87% of individuals; the relaxation level increased significantly in 74% of individuals. In three particular individuals a significant amount of sessions (up to 30%) resulted in negative or non-significant effects. These cases are related to the cyclical behavioural alteration of the individuals, so they were less sensitive to stimuli during some periods.The results of this work stress the importance of developing and improving quantitative methods to asses the effect of multisensory stimulation, using a significant number of individuals and sessions. The correct definition of quantitative variables and the determination of the effect of the observer on the results of the sessions are two aspects to be improved in future works in order to obtain more conclusive results.