Effects of Sensory Integration Therapy for Siblings on Children with Disabilities: Focusing on the Observation of Quality Changes through Interview with Their Primary Caregiver

Abstract

Sensory integration therapy is an area of intervention that should be of interest to occupational therapists, physical therapists, and special education. However, research has been continuously required to establish confidence due to the lack of consistency of each intervention. The purpose of this study was to implement sensory integration therapy for the siblings of disabled and non-disabled children and to demonstrate the effectiveness in brotherhood, peer relationships, play skills and sensory integration functions. This study was conducted on children with parental consent among children with disabilities who use the S Child Development Center, and are preschoolers aged 3-7. The experimental group consisted of 20 participants (10 disabled children and 10 non-disabled siblings of disabled children) for group sensory integration therapy. Each experiment group had 40 minutes of sensory integration therapy for the sibling once a week, and a total of 10 programs were conducted. Interviews were conducted with the primary caregiver of children to identify qualitative changes after participating in the study. This research showed positive changes in brotherhood relationships, improvement of play skills, and changes in peer relationships after the intervention of the sibling group sensory integration therapy on the results of interview with the main caregiver.