Can Sensory Integration Therapy Help Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder - Research Paper Example

? “Can SI therapy help children with autistic spectrum disorder successfully engage in goal-directed activities?” Introduction This is a research paper to verify if sensory integration therapy assists children with autistic spectrum disorder to productively engage in goal-directed practices. Sensory integration (SI) is a specialty field of occupational treatment that is based on more than forty years of theory and research. The expression sensory integration refers to: The manner the brain systematizes sensations for involvement in occupation (Bundy, Lane & Murray, 2002); A hypothesis founded on neuroscience that gives perspective for understanding the sensory scopes of human conduct; A model for appreciating the means in which sensation influences development; Assessments comprising standardized assessments, organized observation, and teacher or parent interviews that recognize patterns of SI dysfunction; Intervention approaches that improves information processing, praxis, and involvement in daily life for persons, populations and associations. The SI specialty was originally formulated by A. Jean Ayres, OTR, PhD, who was mutually an educational psychologist and an occupational therapist. A former associate of the USC occupational therapy department, Ayres developed a theoretical structure, a set of consistent tests, currently known as “Sensory Integration and Praxis Tests”, and a clinical a strategy for identification and correction of SI challenges in children (Bundy, Lane & Murray, 2002). Ayres publications on SI span a thirty years period as from the 1960s, and comprise psychometric researches, as well as clinical attempts and solitary case system investigation. It is necessary to understand what Autism is in order to validate information for this study. Autism refers to a developmental disability considerably affecting a child's social engagement and non-verbal and verbal communication, usually evident prior age 3, which unfavorably affects learning and schooling performance. Thesis question for this research paper is “Can SI therapy help children with autistic spectrum disorder successfully engage in goal-directed activities?” Answering this thesis question is the fundamental purpose for this research since it assists in answering the fundamental issues. Review of the Literature This is a topic that has made many therapist and scientists to do extensive researches regarding the effect of SI therapies to children. Sensory Integration is known as the neurological procedures that organizes consciousness from an individual’s body and from the surroundings and makes it feasible to employ the body efficiently within the setting. Studies have revealed that children with poor sensory systems frequently have complexity in regulating their reactions to sensation. Miller and Lane, (2000) illustrated this as sensory modulation disorder, an incapability to “control and systematize the degree, scope, and kind of response to sensory element in a measured and adaptive method” (p. 1) (Miller & Lane, 2000). Occupational therapy involvement for this people uses philosophy from sensory integration hypothesis and concentrates on commitment in child-directed, sensory-rich encounters that are independently designed to handle each child’s precise sensory requirements (Fombonne, 2003). The therapist craftily engineers and regulates the sensory traits of the environment, encouraging play and self-direction while necessitating adaptive responses in affective, motor, social, speech, and cognitive sections; creating the correct challenge; and attracting the child’s internal drive. Most SI study and practice concentrates on children who have a diversity of developmental and learning challenges, comprising autism and other growth disabilities, developmental threat conditions, conduct and concentration disorders, education or learning disabilities, and developmental organization disorder. Methodical assessment is critical in determining whether a sensory system issue is a factor in the child’s growth, and if so, which involvement approaches will best assist the child and family unit. Classic intercession usually happen within a specially organized therapeutic surroundings that permits the therapist to provide specific sensory and movement difficulties to the teen, which slowly increase in convolution over a period. This kind of involvement is typified by a jokey atmosphere in which the baby is influenced to create ideas for activities, to flexibly react to new challenges, and to increase confidence as well as proficiency. Intervention comprises education and consultation with teachers, parents and other caregivers, adjustment of environments, and inclusion of suitable sensory-based actions during the day. The application of sensory integration ideologies within association takes into consideration the sensory requirements in the place of work.  The application for individuals takes into report the sensory and practice variances and demands for a people such as mature individuals with autism (Crepeau, Cohn & Schell, 2003). Recent approximations suggest that the occurrence of ASD (autism spectrum disorders) in America is estimate d as six per a thousand children, equating to approximately 114,000 children below the age of 5 years (Fombonne, 2003). Youngsters with ASD frequently demonstrate unwanted behaviors such as aimless running, stereotypic motor movements, self-injurious behaviors and aggression. Occupational therapists are skillful at giving intervention targeted in foster engagement in their patients with disabilities and this intercession may take numerous forms. One technique occupational therapists usually report using with individuals with ASD is Ayres’s sensory integration or sensory integration–founded occupational therapy. The objective of this research paper is to assess if SI assist children with autistic spectrum disorder to achieve goal directed activities. In assessing that Goal attainment scaling (GAS) is very instrumental assessment tool. GAS is a methodology that reveals promise for usage of intervention effectiveness study and program assessment in occupational treatment. According to Zoe Mailloux et al article, it is essential to recognize the recent and current usages of GAS to occupational treatment for children with sensory integration malfunction, as well as the procedure, helpfulness, and problems of utilization of the GAS strategy to affected population (Mailloux et al, 2007). The merits and demerits of using GAS in multisite and single-site research with this affected individuals is explored, consequently the potential resolutions and future strategies that will reinforce the application of GAS as a measure of therapy effectiveness, both in present clinical practice and in essential larger, multisite investigation studies. With the eventual aim of improving participation and appointment in consequential life activities, work-related therapists establish objectives with individual persons and their relatives that are considerably unique and varied (Crepeau, Cohn, & Schell, 2003). The display of potential results after intervention generates rich clinical practice but makes executing effectiveness study complex. History and development of sensory integration theory Sensory Integration Theory was generated over twenty five years ago by a professional therapist named A. Jean Ayres to elucidate the association between deficits in interpreting consciousness from a person and the environment and complexities with motor learning or academic or " (Bundy et al., 2002). Ayres was not merely an occupational psychoanalyst, but had higher training in educational psychology and neuroscience. Research on SI and Efficacy of Interventions There is an immense deal disagreement surrounding the study on interventions regarding SI theory. Many in the discipline, as well as educators and parents, believe in the efficiency of sensory integration treatment. However, many consider there is not suitable research to sustain the use of intervention derived from the theory. There are studies which demonstrate both the value of sensory treatment on individuals with sensory dysfunction, as well as researches that demonstrate the ineffectiveness of sensory treatment (Miller & Lane, 2000). Discussion Philosophy The philosophy of Sensory Integration proposes that a transformation in contribution to the child’s nervous structure can modify behavior.  Sensory integration hypothesis is based on the idea that the data people receive about the universe comes through their sensory coordination. This comprises the fundamental five senses of sight, smell, taste, touch and sound, as well as an intelligence of movement, and logic of body pose (Miller & Lane, 2000). Most individuals are well conversant with the fundamental five senses, but are less conscious of the functions of movement and the intellect of body position in daily functioning and learning. The intelligence of movement is also known as the vestibular intellect which reacts to body locomotion through space and transformation in head position. Another identity for intellect of body position is proprioception. Three of the common senses, vestibular, tactile (touch), and proprioception, are strongly related and require to work together efficiently for proper performance and motor planning. Sensory integration is a word that illustrates the organization, or inter-connection, of the common senses. It is recommended that a child with a sensory integration disorder normally shows more than one of these symptoms. Goal Directed Activities In assessing that Goal attainment scaling (GAS) is very instrumental assessment tool. Involvement in profession to support contribution in circumstance is the focus and targeted end purpose of occupational therapy intervention (Mailloux et al, 2007). Involvement in profession is seen as logically supporting and leading to contribution in context. This is a confirmation that proper implementation of SI is essential to assist children with autistic spectrum disorder successfully engage in goal-directed activities. When individuals involve in occupations, they are dedicated to function as a result of self-choice, inspiration, and connotation. The term articulates the profession’s conviction in the essence of valuing and regarding the individual’s choices, desires, and requirements during the assessment and intervention procedure. Engagement in profession includes the objective, physically observable, perspectives of performance and the subjective, psychological or emotional, aspects of performance. Occupational psychotherapists and occupational therapy helpers understand commitment from this double and holistic viewpoint and address all the features of performance such as cognitive, physical, psychosocial, and contextual, when giving interventions systematized to support appointment in occupations and in everyday life activities (Mailloux et al, 2007). Occupational therapists and their assistants make out that health is enhanced and maintained when people are able to involve in occupations and in practices that allow preferred or needed participation in school, workplace, home, and community life situations. Clinical Perspectives Clinical reasoning directs the professional therapists’ choice of the application of one or more structure of orientation such as sensory integration. Clinical study has revealed that the majority of youngsters with autism has strange responses to sensory incentives and can get over stimulated by elevated stages of visual stimuli, touch, and sound. It is consider that sensory input frequently cannot be synchronized or is perceived in a different way by children suffering from autism. Sensory-based treatments are more and more used by occupational therapists and occasionally by other kinds of therapists in treatment of youngsters with behavioral and developmental disorders (Bundy et al., 2002). Sensory-based therapies include activities that are considered to systematize the sensory structure by providing proprioceptive, vestibular, tactile, auditory, and inputs. Brushes, balls, swings, and other particularly designed therapeutic or leisure equipment is used to give these inputs. However, it is indistinct whether youngsters who show with sensory-based challenges have a definite “disorder” of the sensory coordination of the brain or if these challenges are characteristics connected with other behavioral and developmental disorders. Since there is no generally accepted structure for diagnosis, sensory processing disarray generally should not be analyzed. Other behavioral and developmental disorders must always be measured, and a thorough assessment should be accomplished. Difficulty accepting or processing sensory data is a feature that may be observed in many developmental behavioral disarrays, counting autism spectrum disorders, developmental coordination disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and childhood anxiety malfunctions. Occupational therapy with the use of sensory-based therapies may be acceptable as one of the components of a comprehensive treatment plan. However, parents should be informed that the amount of research regarding the effectiveness of sensory integration therapy is limited and inconclusive. Important roles for pediatricians and other clinicians may include discussing these limitations with parents, talking with families about a trial period of sensory integration therapy, and teaching families how to evaluate the effectiveness of a therapy (Miller & Lane, 2000). Sensory Integration in Child Development One of the most characteristic contributions that Ayres did to comprehension of child development was her concentration on sensory dispensation, principally with deference to the proximal senses such as tactile, vestibular, and proprioceptive. From the sensory incorporation perspective, these senses are highlighted since they are primary and primitive; they control the child’s relations with the universe early in existence (Bundy et al., 2002). The distal sanity of hearing and vision are vital and become progressively more dominant as the youngster matures. Ayres supposed, however, that the body-oriented senses are a basis on which multifaceted occupations are scaffolded. In addition, when Ayres started her work, the tactile, vestibular, and proprioceptive wits were virtually unnoticed by clinicians and scholars who were fascinated in child growth. Ayres devoted her occupation to studying the functions that these elapsed senses play in growth and in the origin of developmental tribulations of children. A basic supposition made by Ayres was that brain purpose is a vital factor in human performance. She articulated, therefore, that acquaintance of brain role and dysfunction would provide her imminent into child development and would assist her comprehend the developmental tribulations of youngsters. However, Ayres also had a practical orientation that oozed from her professional environment as an occupational therapist (Bundy et al., 2002). She was anxious particularly with how brain roles influenced the child’s capability to participate productively in daily occupations. As a result, her work represents a synthesis of neurobiologic approaches with the practical, daily concerns of people, principally children and their families. This is a confirmation that Ayres development assists to help children who are suffering from autistic. The Pros and Cons of Using Sensory Integration Pros: the advantages of SI are associated with its capability to assist children achieve goal directed activities. Results of the methodical review propose the sensory integration strategy may consequence in positive results in sensorimotor activities and motor planning; attention, socialization, and behavioral directive; reading-associated skills; participation in energetic play; and accomplishment of individualized goals. In addition, self-esteem, gross motor skills, and reading advantages may be continued from three months to 2years. Cons: The only advantage is that there is no straight forward structure in place to support and enforce sensory integration therapies. Conclusion Sensory therapy is an involvement which is consequential from sensory integration hypothesis. Children with autism are contemplated to have problems controlling sensory input. Therefore, teachers have resort to sensory therapy to assist youngsters with autism reduce stress; reduce negative behavior, calm, and augment positive behavior. The study on sensory therapy is contentious. Although there is a body of research which reveals it can be effectual, many consider there are procedural flaws with these researches. Other studies demonstrate the method is not effective. Small-group or single design are frequently used to research the behavior transformation from sensory therapy techniques, and further researches are required to determine the efficiency of sensory therapy with youngsters diagnosed as autistic. According to the above outcome from various outcomes it is positive to conclude that the process is effective even though it faces challenges just like any methodology. References Bundy, A. C., Lane, S. J., & Murray, E. A. (2002). Sensory integration: Theory and practice (2nd ed.). Philadelphia:F. A. Davis. Crepeau, E. B., Cohn, E. S., & Schell, B. A. B. (Eds.). (2003). Willard and Spackman’s occupational therapy (10th ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins. Fombonne, E. (2003). The prevalence of autism. JAMA, 289, 87–89. doi: 10.1001/jama.289.1.87 Mailloux, Z., May-Benson, T. A., Summers, C. A., Miller, L. J., Brett-Green, B., Burke, J. P., et al. (2007). Goal Attainment Scaling as a measure of meaningful outcomes for children with sensory integration disorders. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 61, 254– 259. Miller, L. J., & Lane, S. J. (2000). Toward a consensus in terminology in sensory integration theory and practice: Part 1. Sensory Integration Special Interest Section Quarterly, 23(1), 1–4. Read More