Sensory Enrichment Therapy
Online Course for Parents
Learn how to implement sensory enrichment better
Who should take this course?
There are 3 types of people who should take this course
This course is the best way to get a detailed inside look at the therapy.
You will learn how the brain can change as a result at changes in the environment and what kind of activities you can do in your environment to influence brain development and brain function.
The course also describes the computer expert system that asks you questions about small changes you are seeing and prescribes the best sensory enrichment therapy protocols to stimulate the brain functions that are the most ready to be stimulated, to promote the healthiest growth.
Again, our most successful clients are the ones who took the course. You can take the course before you start the therapy or at the beginning of the therapy. When you enrol in one of our therapy plans, we will reimburse you for the amount you paid for the course.
The course describes 5 of our most powerful generic protocols.
No special equipment needed. You can do these brain stimulation activities at home with typical household items. The course will give you the background behind these sensory enrichment games and their purpose. The more you understand how the brain works and how you can stimulate it with short, pleasant, new, focused sensory and motor games, the better you will do these activities with your family member.
One of these protocols is designed to enhance the ability of your brain to regulate its chemistry, with a wide range of benefits, including mood regulation, social skills, sleep and attention.
Another protocol typically leads to improvements in food diversification.
There is a fun game, that helps promote better flow of information between the two sides of the brain, which also has a wide range of benefits in areas of cognitive processing.
The course includes lessons on how the brain works, how it engages with the environment, how it is designed to change and the kind of activities that have been shown to promote growth and even repair in the brain. It also includes lessons about how to use Mendability’s expert system to prescribe a customized program, but you would need to enrol in one of our therapy plans to take advantage of that.
The most successful families in our program are the ones who take the 2 to 3 hours to complete the lessons.
The course goes deeply into how the expert system analyses your scores and prescribes the customized program, so that you can take full advantage of it to give you even more powerful results.
The more you understand how the brain works and how you can stimulate it with short, pleasant, new, focused sensory and motor games, the better you will do these activities with your family member. For that purpose, the course will give you the background behind the sensory enrichment games and their purpose.
The course is included in all our therapy plans. If you have not taken it yet, we strongly recommend you do as soon as you can.
Why you should take this course
Gain confidence and understanding
Discover what is behind the exercises as you prepare to engage in Sensory Enrichment Therapy.
In-depth inside look
A detailed guided tour through this cutting edge, clinically-proven multi sensory approach.
Engaging online, video-based learning
On your phone, tablet, or computer, sit back and enjoy.
Gain confidence and understanding
As you consider Sensory Enrichment Therapy as an option for your children, we present you with an opportunity to study the program in detail and in-depth with training material taken from the professional certification course.
The course includes 2 hours of detailed information about the science that forms the basis of this therapy, an analysis of a few powerful protocols and an in-depth description of the tools you will be using as you implement the therapy in your home.
This course is possibly the best way to prepare to administer this program with your child.
In-depth inside look
An evidence-based brain enrichment program validated by randomized controlled trials
Sensory Enrichment Therapy is a new sensory modality that targets the mechanisms of brain plasticity to improve brain functioning.
Two randomized controlled trials (1,2) and a peer-reviewed intent-to-treat study of 1,002 children with autism and developmental delays (3) showed:
- 6x more effective than standard care alone (1)
- 21% fell below ADOS cutoff for autism after 6 months (2)
- Higher I.Q. (1,2)
- Progress consistent across all age groups (1 – 18 yrs.), genders, a wide range of symptoms (2,3)
1. Percent of individuals with clinical improvement on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS)
2. 21% of Sensorimotor-Enriched children and 0% of Standard-Care children fell below the autism cutoff score after 6 months
- Woo CC, Leon M. Environmental enrichment as an effective treatment for autism: a randomized controlled trial. Behav Neurosci. 2013
- Woo CC, Donnelly JH, Steinberg-Epstein R, Leon M. Environmental Enrichment as a Therapy for Autism: A Clinical Trial Replication and Extension. Behav Neurosci. 2015
- Aronoff E, Hillyer R, Leon M. Environmental Enrichment Therapy for Autism: Outcomes with Increased Access. Neural Plast. 2016
Engaging online, video-based learning
- Charts, Animations, Gorgeous photos
- Real voice voice-over
- Full-text transcripts
- Interactive quizzes
- Unlimited phone support
What is included in the course?
This course is designed for parents who are either:
– Already implementing Sensory Enrichment Therapy with their children,
– Thinking about enrolling in one of our therapy programs, or
– Not interested in doing the full therapy but looking for good generic enrichment protocols to stimulate their children’s brains
When you enrol in one of our therapy programs, you become the therapist for your loved one. This course will give you extra training to help you prepare for the therapy. This course also gives enough training on environmental enrichment principles to help you
This course is provided completely online. You can take the course using your own computer or mobile device.
This course does not certify you to deliver any therapy support to anyone else and does not give you any privileges as a certified professional in any way. It does not provide all of the information necessary to engage in the therapy, as an account on Mendability is required for the actual assessments, worksheets, and instructions.
Note: If you are a health professional and would like to become certified in Sensory Enrichment Therapy, please enroll in the Professional Certification Course available on this site.
- Development of Sensory Enrichment Therapy …… 23 min.
How the science of environmental enrichment was developed into a practical therapy. - Sensory Enrichment Therapy Principles …… 27 min.
How to do Sensory Enrichment Therapy at home effectively. - Baseline Questionnaire …… 15 min.
How to complete the initial evaluation form. - Progress Questionnaire …… 9 min.
How to report progress in order to get the most beneficial worksheets. - Worksheets …… 14 min.
Where you review the instructions for the therapy exercises. - Multisensory Core Protocol …… 20 min.
Description of the Multisensory Core Protocol and commonly asked questions about olfactory, tactile and visual activities. - Sensory Enrichment Foundation …… 13 min.
How to incorporate short sensory pairings into existing daily routines to provide additional opportunities for brain development throughout the day and multiply the effects of the therapy activities. - What progress looks like with Sensory Enrichment Therapy …… 8 min.
What to expect with the program.
- Brain Map – Part 1 …… 23 min.
Brain Map – Part 2 …… 29 min.
Key roles, functions, and physiology of the brain as it relates to Sensory Enrichment Therapy. - Brain Chemistry …… 12 min.
How neurons communicate and the impact of brain chemistry on development and behavior. - Brain Plasticity …… 12 min.
The tools the brain uses to grow and repair itself. - Environmental Enrichment …… 17 min.
The animal experiments that led to the development of Sensory Enrichment Therapy. - Expert System …… 9 min.
How the expert system selects the best Sensory Enrichment Therapy protocols. - Goals …… 5 min.
How to set therapeutic objectives with the program. - Self-Support Tools …… 11 min.
The various features of Mendability designed to help you do the therapy at home.
Sensory Enrichment Therapy
Online Course for Parents
Crash course on what sensory enrichment is and how it works.
FAQ
The core content should take around 2 hours to complete. There are also over 12 hours of optional bonus material.
You can take the course at your own pace. There is no time limit.
This training will be 100% online but, you still have the option to call us with any questions.
Within the online content, there will be visual slides presenting text summaries, data, charts, animations, and videos. The course content will also be narrated to aid audio learners. In addition, there will be text-based content to accompany all of the material.
This course was built on a platform that displays quite well on a mobile device.
There are a few quizzes in this course to help consolidate what you learned in order to receive your certification of completion.
If you are not interested in the certificate of completion, the quizzes are not required.
The cost of the course listed on this web page includes everything you need to learn the materials presented.
If you are interested in implementing Sensory Enrichment Therapy in your home, you will need to either enrol separately with Mendability or any other health professionals certified in Sensory Enrichment Therapy.
If you are currently enrolled in Mendability, you may be eligible to take the course free of charge. Please contact us for more details.
No, you do not need to be enrolled in any Mendability program in order to take this course.
This course is for educational purposes only. It is designed for parents and caregivers who are interested in learning about Sensory Enrichment Therapy. This course includes a few examples of protocols that are assigned to families to implement the full program in their homes. While they are powerful in their own right, we do not endorse the application of these protocols without the supervision of a certified professional in Sensory Enrichment Therapy.
If you are a health professional interested in becoming certified, we recommend that you enrol in the professional certification program.