Applications

• Who are sensory perception difficulties most pronounced in?

  • Very young children who are neurodivergent
  • Can be hypersensitive or hyposensitive
• Outline sensory integrative therapy

  Ayres:

  • Therapist does initial assessment of child’s sensory issues using a number of standardised tests of sensory integration
  • Therapist develops personalised treatment plan using techniques and tools to meet needs and designed to be fun and engaging
  • Facilitates synthesis of sensory perception and positively reinforcing for child as fun & processing is changed
  • Child allowed to stop at any stage
  • Measured through improved tolerance for stimulation & improvement in perception
• Name examples of activities in sensory integrative therapy

  • Sand pits - touch, texture
  • Water tanks - touch, sound, texture
  • Dancing to different types of music - sound, movement
  • Squeezed between pads or weighted vests - pressure, movement
  • Brushes on skin - touch, hand-eye coordination
  • Sitting or rolling on bouncy ball - vision, balance
• What is the effectiveness of sensory integrative play?

  Daly:

  • Found use of weighted vests for children with developmental disorders increased attention to tasks
  • Controversial because only a few studies found positive results, so is an insufficient number of studies for clear assessment if it actually works
• Outline developing form constancy

  • Child stands in room and identifies all rectangular shapes and then stands in a different place and repeats

  OR

  • Toys like shape sorters where matching shapes with hole and child has to recognise triangular object remains triangular no matter which way rotated
  • Works because the child develops shape constancy