Social Integration: Henry’s story.

Social Integration:

The ability to integrate with society and other people help the individual suffering from the disability to build important relationships with friends, family members and helpers/therapists. Unfortunately the practice of socialization is can be quite hard if the individual is self-conscious about his or her ability to communicate.

There are various ways to help improve the socialization skills of these individuals. First the teacher or parent of the individual must contact therapists to evaluate the child’s behaviour. These therapists introduce creative activities of building self esteem and confidence which could help the individual suffering from the disability overcome various situations. A therapist is also encouraged to teach and train helpers to encourage other to accept these individuals when out in public and amongst groups. Caregivers are also encouraged to look for opportunities to engage the child such as the use of laughter, education and the encouragement of overcoming difficulties. They are also encouraged to allow the individual experiment and explore the environment individually.      

Henry’s Story:

Henry is an 18 year old who suffers from various disabilities such as Cerebral Palsy and visual impairment. Henry looks forward to his visits to the multi sensorial rooms. Henry finds the areas of lighting activities as his favorite environment. Henry managed to explore the bright light stimulation of fiber optics through the use of vision and tactile awareness. According to his caregivers, Henry found the changes from dark to light and from red to yellow to be the most visually stimulating and this helped him to focus his visual attention for longer periods of times. These activities helped Henry integrate with his school mates and helped him take part in school activities with more confidence. Thanks to his improved skills in colour visualization Henry took the lead role of switching the bright infinity lights as part of the story during drama classes.

Henry developed his skills from those of awareness and attention to include the abilities to choose his own equipment and learn how to use the switch to control the lights. This story shows us that multi sensorial rooms can have a huge impact and immense value in terms of personal development and empowerment.   

Reference list:

senmagazine.co.uk. 2016. Sensory adventures. [ONLINE] Available at:https://senmagazine.co.uk/articles/articles/senarticles/sensory-adventures. [Accessed 28 May 2016].

cerebralpalsy.org. 2016. Socialization. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.cerebralpalsy.org/information/socialization. [Accessed 28 May 2016].