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Aromatherapy activities for people with special needs
The following is a compilation of activities I have found useful when working with people with special needs. As well as offering aromatherapy in the traditional sense as a massage treatment, with a bit of imagination you can incorporate using essential oils into a whole range of interesting activities to help develop communication skills, self esteem, sequencing, multi-tasking, and choice making as well as planning and organisational skills.
I welcome comments and suggestions to help make this page into a really useful resource for therapists who are privileged to work with a very special client group.
| Activity | Aim |
| Massage with essential oils | Relaxation, healing, skin care, personal hygiene, comfort, anxiety management, body and spatial awareness, appropriateness, non-sexual touch, movement, co-ordination, circulation, sensory stimulation, sensation, smell memory and cued relaxation, self esteem, quality of life, developing a relationship, descriptive and association skills (smells), likes and dislikes, choices and preferences. (see contraindication for people with disabilities) |
| Hand massage | Hand awareness for signing, proximity of others, developing a relationship, tolerance for touch, nail cutting and hand washing, distraction from self harming, motor co-ordination, pointing, hand leading. |
| Reciprocal hand massage | Encouraging awareness of others, pairing partners, copying, sequencing, proximity of others, giving and receiving, empathy, relationship building. |
| Room fragrance | Cue smells, orientation and recognition, signifying an activity, time of day. |
| Making skin preparations | Choice making, mixing, pouring, motor skills and co-ordination, preparation, organising and planning, using equipment, attention span, turn-taking, personal hygiene, self esteem. |
| Making gifts - potpourri, sprays, scented paper, soaps, candles | Planning, socialising, caring, awareness of others, feeling good, self esteem, motor skills and co-ordination. |
| Making perfumes | Choosing, preferences, likes and dislikes, reasons why, selecting, mixing, cause and effect, self esteem. |
| Making flower waters | Collecting, planning, preparing, multi-tasking, cause and effect. |
| Guess the smell/smell games | Using natural and familiar synthetic fragrances, asking students to guess the smell. Helps to assess association skills, descriptive language, discrimination, waiting, turn-taking, expressing likes and dislikes. |
| Matching games | As well as being fun - matching synthetic fragrances (coffee, baking bread, cut grass, etc. with the taste of the real article. Tests association skills, multi-sensory processing, perception, non-contextual learning. |