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Comprehensive, reliable, and valid assessment is essential for individually tailored, appropriate, and effective intervention planning and implementation. Research, education, and practice using an Ayres Sensory Integration ® (ASI) approach have a long history of prioritizing comprehensive assessment. To meet the need for a set of tests that will fully evaluate the constructs of ASI with psychometrically strong, internationally appropriate, and easily accessible measurement tools, the development of the Evaluation in Ayres Sensory Integration® (EASI) has been initiated. This article introduces the EASI, describes the overarching plan for its development, and reports the results of promising preliminary analyses of discriminative validity data.
Acomprehensive evaluation of the sensory, motor, and praxis functions that can influence occupational performance is critical to evidence-based intervention. A research-informed and thorough assessment process allows for adequate characterization of a person's strengths and challenges to plan appropriate and individually tailored interventions.
Reliable and valid assessment tools, especially those standardized for specific populations, provide objective and credible procedures for measurement of the sensory integration (SI) functions that may underlie participation and occupation. Systematic use of assessment data to plan intervention can increase the likelihood that services are provided in a cost-effective, efficient, and effective manner to achieve optimal outcomes.
Early in her professional career, A. Jean Ayres recognized the importance of systematic and comprehensive assessment, as evidenced by her seminal work in the measurement of sensory, motor, and praxis function and dysfunction. To understand sensory integration as it related to successful participation in play, self-care, and schoolwork activities, she designed and adapted standardized tests that evaluated the constructs of SI. These constructs included sensory perception, praxis, bilateral integration, and balance, as well as nonstandardized observational measures of functions such as sensory reactivity and postural mechanisms (e.g., the ability to assume and maintain a prone extension or supine flexion posture; Ayres, 1971).
Ayres developed individual tests and then published the Southern California Sensory Integration Tests (SCSIT; Ayres, 1972a), which were later revised and restandardized to become the Sensory Integration and Praxis Tests (SIPT; Ayres, 1989). The SIPT, standardized on approximately 2,000 children ages 4 yr through 8 yr 11 mo, is the only published set of tests that collectively addresses most of the core SI functions identified by Ayres. The SIPT demonstrates strong reliability...