Students Design Calming Chairs for Those on the Spectrum
From: Disability Scoop - 01/07/2015
By: Judy L. Thomas

For years, the Overland Park, Kansas. father had searched for a way to help
his son find relief from the stress and anxiety often experienced by children
with autism. Like many of those children, Joshua could be soothed through
deep touch pressure - the kind of feeling one might get by being tightly
hugged or squeezed.

It's been well-documented that sensory therapy such as deep touch pressure
can calm children with autism, reducing tantrums, meltdowns, and
hyperactivity.

Using such items as a papasan chair, an inflatable air bag, a swimming pool
noodle, and a remote control air pump, engineering students at the Center for
Advanced Professional Studies in the Blue Valley School District designed and
built a device that not only provides deep pressure to calm the user, but is
affordable and looks like a regular piece of furniture. It could work in the
home or in an educational or clinical setting.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2015/01/07/students-calming-chairs/19944/

Link:
Blue Valley students build chairs that snuggle children with autism into calm
http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article5011941.html

Submitted by Anne Hare