Kira Mortensen, 8, a student at Jordan Valley School, rubs noses with teacher Traci Wilson in the Snoezelen room, where colors flash and music plays. Johanna Workman, Deseret News

      The Snoezelen room (Snoezelen is a combination of two Dutch words meaning "sniff" and "doze") is equipped with soothing music, kaleidoscope-like wall shows, aromatherapy, a ball pit and other unusual toys that light up the eyes of the severely disabled students who use it.
      "I've never seen a single child that doesn't love this room," Jordan Valley principal John Gardner said.
      Mariana Popescu says her autistic daughter Ramona, 18, enjoys lying on the vibrating massage pad, burying herself in the lighted ball pit and listening to music when she visits the room.
      "I think she finds the dark and the music very soothing," Popescu said. "When she's upset, they take her over there, and the music and the lights calm her down."
      And it benefits children with all kinds of disabilities. In addition to autistic children, the school serves deaf and blind students, children who have cognitive disabilities and traumatic brain injuries.
      For children who are normally subdued and have limited communication abilities, the room awakens their senses and helps them to interact and communicate. For children who are aggressive or upset, the room has a calming effect, assistant principal Wendy Bills said.
      "We had this one boy who was really quite aggressive and he was throwing a fit in the office," Bills said. "I said 'Do you want to go in the Snoezelen room?' and he said 'Room, yes.' "
      He soon became calm enough to go to his work site for the rest of the day, she said.
      "They just get so wound up inside they can't calm down," Bills said. "It's just made such an impact."
      Teacher Christy Heckel brought in Amberlee to watch the bubbles in the lighted water tower.
 

Kira Mortensen plays in a tub of plastic balls lighted from below with a color wheel in the Snoezelen room. Johanna Workman, Deseret News

      Amberlee, who can't move any part of her body but her head, uses eye movement to indicate what color she wants the bubbles to be.
      "Any kind of reaction is just really neat for us," Heckel said.
      Equipment for the room cost upwards of $10,000, Bills said. The school tried out elements of the room several years ago, then made it a permanent structure about three years ago when the school was remodeled because it was such a success. Each child in the school uses the room at least twice a week, Bills said.
      One class last week used the room just before heading to a music lesson as a way to prepare the students for their next class.
      Autistic children often crave sensory feedback, and they poke their eyes, bang their head or wave their hands in front of their faces to alter the light, Bills said.
      "They are trying to get that kind of sensory to their brain," Bills said. "(The room) takes care of that craving so they can work at a desk."