The Multisensory Handbook ─ A Guide for Children and Adults With Sensory Learning Disabilities

Do you support a child or adult with sensory perceptual issues or cognitive impairment?
For people with challenging sensory and cognitive conditions, everyday life can become so unpredictable and chaotic that over time, lack of engagement can often lead to a state of learned helplessness. In this insightful text, Paul Pagliano shows how ‘learned helplessness’ can be transformed into learned optimism through multisensory stimulation, and explains how a programme of support can be designed and modulated to match the person’s needs, interests and abilities. Full of practical, easy to use multisensory assessment tools and intervention strategies, this book will help:


foster a feeling of ease with the environment


the child or adult experience pleasure and happiness


kick-start their desire to explore


encourage improved learning, social well-being and quality of life.


The author offers an abundance of exciting multisensory stimulation ideas that can be applied to communication, play, leisure and recreation, therapy and education. Practical resources also show how to monitor and review applications to ensure they are being used in the most effective and enjoyable ways possible.
Informed by an astute, up-to-date, comprehensive overview of research and theory, The Multisensory Handbook will appeal to primary professionals from a wide range of disciplines including education, health and social care.

Paul Pagliano is Associate Professor in Education at James Cook University, Australia. He has an international reputation as a public speaker, and is on the editorial boards of seven academic journals.

Dedication Acknowledgements 1. Multisensory stimulation and the senses 2. Sense organs and sensory processing 3. Pleasure, happiness and Predictive Coding 4. Making sense: A developmental process 5. Semiotics, tipping points, multisensory communication and Care Theory 6. Designing environments for the use of multisensory stimulation 7. A unified approach to using multisensory stimulation References Index