HB Studios Sports Centre opens new sensory rooms
The sound of rushing water. A colourful sunset. The relaxing back-and-forth of a movement rocking chair. These are all things a client might experience in a sensory room at the HB Studios Sports Centre in Bridgewater.
The facility recently unveiled two sensory rooms as part of its soon-to-open Quinn Sensory Centre.
“It took a lot of people and organizations to bring this to fruition,” says facility manager Shelley Skinner.
The idea came about during a conversation with the Sports Centre president, Doug Quinn, and his wife, Betty. Skinner, who has a background as a teaching assistant, then decided to consult South Shore Regional Centre for Education as well as the South Shore branch of Autism Nova Scotia. Skinner wanted to make sure the two sensory rooms (aka Snoezelen rooms) would be “appropriate for everybody.”
Snoezelen rooms provide a controlled sensory environment that can be beneficial to people with autism, ADHD, dementia and more. However — especially given the strain the COVID-19 pandemic has put on everyone — Skinner points out that people don’t need specific diagnoses to enjoy the effects of the space.
“For two-and-a-half years, we’ve been very stressed as a society,” she says, noting that places like sensory rooms can help people “gain that sense of calm again.”
The centre’s first room opened on April 5, complete with aromatherapy, light-up bubble tubes, a sensory projector and other equipment. Skinner explains that aspects of the room (such as the music) can be adjusted to create either a calming or stimulating environment, depending on what the client needs.
“There’s enough equipment in that room that you can turn things off [or] put all of it on,” says Skinner. “It really, truly can be individualized.”
The second room is much the same, minus the projector screen.
“There’s so much potential for people to use it and benefit from it. If it creates a calming environment where someone goes in for an hour and their sensory system is balanced again, that’s beneficial,” says Skinner.
A one-hour session in one of the sensory rooms costs $15, and Skinner says United Way Lunenburg County will support people on a low or fixed income who want to use the rooms.
Along with the two sensory rooms, the Quinn Sensory Centre will also include a oneon-one counselling centre and a gathering space for groups. The sensory centre is scheduled to have its grand opening on May 27.