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ABSTRACT
Occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants rely on knowledge and skills to guide their intervention planning as they help clients who are experiencing difficulties with engaging in occupation. Sensory integration theory, with its rich history grounded in the science of human growth and development, offers occupational therapy practitioners specific intervention strategies to remediate the underlying sensory issues that affect functional performance.
This article articulates the core principles of sensory integration as originally developed by Dr. A. Jean Ayres, explains the rationale for developing a trademark specifically linked to these core principles, and identifies the impact that this trademark can have on practice.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this article, you should be able to:
1. Recognize why the term Ayres Sensory Integration® was trademarked.
2. Identify the core concepts of Ayres Sensory Integration in relation to typical development, patterns of sensory inte-gration dysfunction, and principles of intervention.
3. Differentiate Ayres Sensory Integration from other approaches that use similar terms and strategies but do not include the same theoretical principles of this approach.
INTRODUCTION
Biologist Edward Wilson (1998) stated that "scientific theories are the product of imagination-informed imagination. They reach beyond their grasp to predict the existence of previously unsuspected phenomena" (p. 57). Sensory integration theory, originated by A. Jean Ayres, fits this description because many aspects of her work represent concepts that require a great deal of imagination about previously unsuspected phenomena. Generated by an occupational therapist and developed primarily within the profession of occupational therapy, sensory integration theory and its application provide an important set of knowledge and skills for practitioners world-wide. Sensory integration is also one of the first theories generated within occupational therapy to undergo the rigor of providing evidence that validates its constructs while providing direction for the strategies clinicians use to remediate the underlying sensory issues that affect performance.
Since Ayres's early writings, beginning in the 1950s, many publications have contributed to the evolution of this theory, which is one of the most cited and applied of all theories within occupational therapy (Mulligan, 2002). As greater interest has developed in the role of brain function in behavior and learning, increased attention has been directed toward Ayres's work. The result has been increased appreciation of the eloquence and substance of...