An empirical evaluation of an interactive multi-sensory environment for children with disability

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Abstract
Seventeen students with severe disability (age range 5 years to 18 years) from one school were assessed on Foundation Outcome Statement Skills (FOS Skills) and subsequently exposed to an interactive multi-sensory environment (MSE). Approximately 40 hours of video recordings were made of the 17 participants interacting in the MSE, and a further recording was made during a school excursion to a local farm school to check for generalisation of behaviour. Six categories of disability were covered in the evaluation, namely children with: severe intellectual disability, severe intellectual disability/autism, severe intellectual disability/visual impairment, severe intellectual disability/hearing impairment, multiple disability, and multiple disability/visual impairment. A repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed a statistically significant increase in the number of FOS Skills exhibited by the participants from Pre MSE to Post MSE. A further ANOVA demonstrated a significant increase in the number of FOS Skills immediately following exposure to the MSE (i.e., following the first session in the MSE). These increases were particularly marked for a small number of participants and for four main FOS Skills. There was also some evidence of generalisation of FOS Skills to an external setting.