Sensory Enrichment Therapy is a program of hands-on activities you do with your family member every day for a few minutes to stimulate their brain and gradually heal key processes like sleep, sensory processing, attention, self-image, etc. so that they can feel better and do more.
The self-guided plan is suitable for most families. It starts with 2 months of coaching to make sure you do it right and are not misled by the simplicity of the protocols.
The Platinum Plan is also available for more complex cases. This plan starts with an assessment: $600. The monthly cost of working directly with the creator of Sensory Enrichment Therapy is: $890 with a minimum commitment of 6 months.
In randomized controlled trials children in the enrichment group were 6X more likely to make clinically significant gains in 6 months, compared to standard care alone.
The children in the Sensory Enrichment group also demonstrated greater reductions in their atypical sensory responses (+11.4 points) compared to the children receiving standard care (+2.9 points), as determined by the Short Sensory Profile.
– Woo, C. C., and Leon, M. (2013). Environmental enrichment as an effective treatment for autism: a randomized controlled trial. Behavioral Neuroscience. 127, 487–497.
– Woo, C. C., Donnelly, J. H., Steinberg- Epstein, R., and Leon, M. (2015). Environmental enrichment as a therapy for autism: a clinical trial replication and extension. Behavioral Neuroscience. 129, 412–422.
– Aronoff, E., Hillyer, R., and Leon, M. (2016). Environmental enrichment therapy for autism: outcomes with increased access. Neural Plast. 2016:2734915.
Take a 2-minute assessment to see how similar people have done in the program.
Schedule a free consultation with one of our therapy coaches to discuss the program.
The hardest part of this program is to find a way to make it fit your daily routines. Don’t worry, within weeks, your family member is probably going to be the one asking for their enrichment activities if you forget.
You will have 3 to 5 games on your worksheet. each game takes about a minute to complete. This is because we are not doing any training. What we’re doing is giving them a new experience, which only takes a few seconds to process.
All you need to do is help them have fun with it, so that they engage with the new experience.
Brain plasticity refers to the ability of the brain to change its structure even after development is complete.
Early researchers believed that neurogenesis, or the creation of new neurons, stopped shortly after birth.
Neurons that are used frequently develop stronger connections. By developing new connections and pruning away weak ones, the brain can adapt and rewire itself.
Environmental Enrichment is the stimulation of the brain by its surroundings. There are 3 components to environmental enrichment: Social enrichment, Activity enrichment and Sensory enrichment.
At Mendability, we focus on Sensory Enrichment because this is where there is the most clinical evidence showing an impact on brain development and brain function.
Sensory Enrichment Therapy is a subset of Environmental Enrichment, focusing on the sensory and motor experiences that have been shown to be effective in clinical studies.
We translated these protocols into short, hands-on activities families can do at home, using simple household items.