About ICE-ASI
About ICE-ASI
International Council for Education in Ayres Sensory Integration (ICE-ASI)
From SIGN to ICE-ASI: A History
The roots of the International Council for Education in Ayres Sensory Integration (ICE-ASI) lie in the Sensory Integration Global Network (SIGN), formed in the early 2000s as the first international collaboration of ASI educators and organisations. SIGN was created from a shared recognition that Ayres Sensory Integration (ASI) was being taught in diverse ways worldwide, and that without dialogue and cooperation, the fidelity of Dr A. Jean Ayres’ work risked being diluted or misunderstood.
SIGN provided a platform for educators to meet, share resources, compare approaches, and identify the essential features of training that should be protected across contexts. It fostered international partnership and laid the groundwork for what became ICE-ASI.
As demand for ASI education expanded globally, the need for stronger governance and accountability became clear. This led to the formal establishment of ICE-ASI, with defined membership, governance, and accountability structures. Unlike SIGN, an informal network, ICE-ASI was designed to provide a sustainable and transparent framework to protect fidelity while respecting diversity in programme design.
Since then, ICE-ASI has become the recognised body responsible for:
- Defining minimum global standards for ASI education.
- Supporting the development of programmes in countries where ASI education is still emerging.
- Encouraging international collaboration, peer support, and resource-sharing.
- Providing a framework for mutual recognition of training, enabling therapists to practise with confidence internationally.
A Global Mission
ICE-ASI was established to strengthen transparency, consistency, and collaboration in ASI education. Its mission is to protect fidelity to Ayres’ original theory and practice and to ensure that educational programmes reflect current research and best practice.
Each country has its own professional frameworks, regulations, and systems of care. For this reason, no single pathway can serve every context. ICE-ASI therefore sets minimum global standards that act as the floor; the essential foundation upon which fidelity and integrity can be guaranteed. Above this floor, countries and organisations are free to develop their own ceilings, shaping programmes that meet national requirements and reflect local professional and cultural needs. This model supports both global consistency and local adaptability.
Avoiding Unhelpful Comparisons
Creating comparison tables between countries can be tempting, placing programmes side by side to see who offers “more” or “less.” However, such comparisons often miss the point.
Such comparisons across countries. Each programme reflects its country’s professional structures, cultural contexts, and healthcare or education and professional regulation systems. By focusing on fidelity and adaptability, ICE-ASI ensures that therapists, wherever they train, receive authentic, robust, and relevant education to their community.
The ICE-ASI minimum standards, achieved through international consensus, define the floor and what must be included to ensure fidelity to Ayres Sensory Integration. They are not intended to reflect the ceiling; the full richness of what any particular programme may contain.
Directly comparing the baseline standards with the content of a complete programme oversimplifies complex differences. It risks undermining trust, missing and obscuring the true vision and purpose of ICE-ASI: to safeguard fidelity while fostering diversity, integrity, and adaptability across international contexts.
What ICE-ASI Stands For
- Global Network: Linking organisations and educators worldwide, creating opportunities for dialogue, collaboration, and mutual recognition of training.
- Fidelity Focused: Protecting authenticity through alignment with the ASI Fidelity Measure, ensuring all training maintains the integrity of practice.
- Connection: Building international peer support, knowledge-sharing, and collaboration across borders.
- Development and Growth: Supporting countries where ASI education is still emerging, with guidance from experienced members to grow programmes that are rigorous and locally relevant.
Looking Forward
ICE-ASI continues to strengthen its role as the international council for ASI education. Its focus is not on comparison or competition, but on unity, guidance, and fidelity.
By upholding the model of floors and ceilings, we aim to create a shared foundation for all, with each country free to design programmes that reach as high as their context allows.
ICE-ASI ensures that therapists worldwide receive education that is authentic to Ayres’ original work and responsive to the unique needs of their communities.
Why ASI Wise was Established
In the United Kingdom, ASI Wise was established to uphold ICE-ASI’s international standards and to ensure that occupational therapists, and others interested in sensory integration, could access education benchmarked against these global requirements. ASI Wise was created to provide high-quality, fidelity-assured training that is both locally relevant and internationally recognised.
In addition, ASI Wise offers the historic and pioneering Ulster University MSc route for those wishing to pursue academic accreditation alongside clinical training. This pathway allows learners to gain university-recognised qualifications while also completing a programme accredited against ICE-ASI standards. The combination ensures therapists are not only trained to fidelity but also hold academic credentials that support career development, research, and advanced professional practice.
Through this dual model, ASI Wise enables UK therapists to benefit from ICE-ASI’s international benchmarking while also accessing a flexible route that includes the rigour of higher education, when the time is right.
This gives UK and Ireland managers and therapists the confidence that their learning is respected, transferable, meets local advancing practice standards, and is globally recognised and transferable.
