Sensory Integration-Based Occupational Therapy Intervention

In a study completed by Renee L. Watling and Jean Dietz (2007), the authors examined the effects of Ayres’ sensory integration-based occupational therapy interventions on children who have been diagnosed with ASD. This study used a single subject, ABAB design to compare the immediate effects of the interventions on the undesired behaviors that are present during task engagement, which in this case were tabletop activities. The tabletop activity was chosen, as it is congruent with educational situations that are encountered during occupational engagement (Watling and Dietz, 2007). The sample population included four children who have been diagnosed with ASD. Eligibility for this study included “no comorbid diagnoses, absence of seizures, no concurrent occupational therapy services, and no intention to add or change medications or therapy services during the course of the study” (Watling and Dietz, 2007). The ABAB design was used in this study in order to examine if the intervention had any effect on the behaviors of each participant. The A phases included no treatment and the B phases represented the treatment conditions, and both phases were videotaped for observational analysis. …show more content…
This study was inclusive of three phases, familiarization, baseline, and treatment. The baseline phase was modeled off of free-play activities that occur in typical pre-school environments. Each child was encouraged to participate in a selection of five different activities, as the therapist observed. The treatment phase included individualized activities that were chosen by the therapist, based on the scores of the sensory profile, clinical observations, and caregiver information. Each phase in the study included three weekly 40-minute therapy sessions, followed by a 10-min tabletop activity segment (Watling and Dietz,