Evaluating Sensory Integration/Sensory Processing Treatment: Issues and Analysis

For more than 50 years, “Sensory Integration” has been a theoretical framework for diagnosing and treating disabilities in children under the umbrella of “sensory integration dysfunction” (SID). More recently, the approach has been reframed as “the dimensions of sensory processing” or SPD in place of SID, so the review herein describes this collective framework as sensory integration/sensory processing treatment (SI/SP-T) for ASD. This review is not focused on diagnosis of SI/SPD. Broadly, the SI/SPD intervention approach views a plethora of disabilities such as ADHD, ASD, and disruptive behavior as being exacerbated by difficulties in modulating and integrating sensory input with a primary focus on contributions from tactile, proprioceptive, and vestibular systems which are hypothesized to contribute to core symptoms of the conditions (e.g., ASD). SI/SP intervention procedures include sensory protocols designed to enhance tactile, proprioceptive, and vestibular experiences. SI/SP-T procedures utilize equipment (e.g., lycra swings, balance beams, climbing walls, and trampolines), specific devices (e.g., weighted vests, sensory brushes) and activities (e.g., placing hands in messy substances such as shaving cream, sequenced movements) hypothesized to enhance sensory integration and sensory processing. The approach is reviewed herein to provide a framework for testing SI/SP-T using widely accepted clinical trials and event coding methods used in applied behavior analysis (ABA) and other behavioral interventions. Also, a related but distinct neuroscientific paradigm, multisensory integration, is presented as an independent test of whether SI/SP-T differentially impacts sensory integration and/or multisensory integration. Finally, because SI/SP-T activities include many incidental behavioral events that are known as developmental facilitators (e.g., contingent verbal models/recasts during verbal interactions), there is a compelling need to control for confounds to study the unique impact of sensory-based interventions. Note that SI/SP-T includes very specific and identifiable procedures and materials, so it is reasonable to expect high treatment fidelity when testing the approach. A patient case is presented that illustrates this confound with a known facilitator (recast intervention) and a method for controlling potential confounds in order to conduct unbiased studies of the effects of SI/SP-T approaches that accurately represent SI/SP-T theories of change.