What Our Families Are Saying Part 2: Interviews
Over this past summer, we at SENSE-ational Spaces have been talking with families who receive space transformation services to learn more about their experiences. To do so, we have partnered with Ashton Bries, a Doctor of Occupational Therapy student at the University of Minnesota. Her Capstone, or final project, is focused on exploring the impacts of the environment on individuals’ ability to engage in their daily roles and routines.
Check out the findings below!
Prior recipients of home modification services completed 1-on-1 interviews aimed at understanding their experiences, goals, thoughts, and feedback. All interview questions were based on the Participation and Sensory Environment Questionnaire (PSEQ) (Pfeiffer et al., 2017). The PSEQ was created by a team of occupational therapist researchers to facilitate communication about and awareness of the effects of our sensory environments on participation in daily roles and routines (Pfeiffer et al., 2017).
During these interviews, 4 themes were identified:
The creation of a unique space for every child and family based on their strengths, goals, resources, and sensory preferences.
“They helped me and assessed him in literally like creating a space that everything in that room was made specifically for him, and to help him along the way.” - Participant 1
Regular use of space with friends and family for skill development and carryover outside of therapy/school setting
“But this room was built specifically to get him stronger and to work on his physical therapy and speech and occupational therapy, and incorporate fun at the same time, too.” - Participant 1
Parental appreciation of and desire for more families to have access to sensory-focused home modification services.
“I think one thing that we're noticing is that the parents of our more marginalized communities, whether they're bilingual parents, immigrant parents, or even are just parents that are functioning at the top of their capacity. They're really underutilizing anything else that could help their child at home.” - Participant 3
Caregivers utilize a variety of strategies to support regulation and role/routine participation, including the use of SENSE-ational Spaces as a resource for space modifications idea generation, creation, and long-term usage.
“We just like to look at the different pictures of other spaces they've done and transfer some of those ideas to home. Just to make cozy spaces where the kids can just go chill out. So it's not just this room that's been impacted, but learning more about just designing different spaces within our house that can help the kids calm down when they need to, or cheer up when they need to.” - Participant 7
Interested in hearing more about how you/your family could experience the positive impacts of sensory-focused space modifications? Contact our team to learn more!
References
Pfeiffer, B., Piller, A., Tucker, C. A., Coster, W., Bevans, K., & Shiu, C. (2017). Participation and sensory environment questionnaire (PSEQ). https://participationandsensoryenvironment.weebly.com/pseq.html