Sensory Integration Therapy and Learning Disabilities: A Critique

This article reviews current evidence on the effectiveness of sensory integration therapy for children with learning difficulties. Therapy involves initial assessment of children, followed by prescription of individual programs involving activities designed to enhance sensory integration and thus enable learning to occur. Current evidence shows that there are no accepted standards for identifying children in need of sensory integration therapy; assessment procedures associated with the therapy have low reliability and validity; and the therapeutic procedures used have not been shown to improve sensory integrative processing skills or academic skills like reading. It is concluded that until further research demonstrates the effectiveness of sensory integration therapy, more traditional procedures should be recommended for helping children with learning difficulties.