A Clinical Trial for Sensory Integration

Abstract

Many speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in early intervention and public schools work closely with occupational therapists (OTs) who employ sensory integration (SI) treatment. SI therapy is used to treat children diagnosed with sensory processing disorders that involve problems with the senses of touch, smell, hearing, tasks, or sight. According to proponents of SI therapy, individuals with sensory processing disorder may be overly sensitive to certain textures, sounds, smells, and tastes, while wearing certain fabrics, tasting certain foods, or normal everyday sounds supposedly cause discomfort. The goal of SI therapy is to foster children’s appropriate responses to sensation in an active, meaningful, and fun way so the child is able to behave in a more functional manner. Many SLPs even cotreat with the OTs. The OT engages the child in SI activities while the SLP attends to the communication essential in the activity. Schools and the American Speech Language Hearing Association mandate that SLPs employ evidence-based practices. Finding evidence for the methods SLPs use is often problematic due to the limited number of controlled intervention studies that are available. The issue has been even greater for SI treatment. Despite the lack of evidence for SI treatment, the majority of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) receive OT services, which usually provide some version of SI activities. SLPs who work with children with ASD and have had to collaborate experiences with OTs will frequently refer children they are treating for SI assessment and intervention. Consequently, SLPs need to be aware of the evidence for SI treatment. The authors claim that this study is one of the first randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on SI treatment to meet standards for fidelity. A newsletter dedicated to speech & language in school-age children