Our two day workshop is a “great opportunity to reflect on clinical practice and learn new skills”. Find out more about the application of Ayres’ Sensory Integration beyond childhood to support health and wellbeing.
We can also offer 2 or 3 day onsite bespoke training and consultation for your organisation to support the development of sensory integration informed care pathways.
We need to consider the importance of maintaining tactile discrimination skills – adequate tactile perception is necessary for using tools in a skillful way for participation in lifelong hobbies like sewing, model making, cake icing and painting.
Last night we were delighted to receive a great fb update from our friend and colleague Tina Champagne. She has just received her advance copy of her book, which will be a great resource to inform and support healthcare professionals working with older adults with dementia, using a sensory integration frame of reference.
The ASI Wise lecture team have been at Abbot’s Lea School in Liverpool this weekend with a fantastic group of committed and enthusiastic occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and teachers exploring the use of sensory strategies and Ayres’ Sensory Integration therapy to support children, young people and adults mental and wellbeing health.
Experiential learning opportunities, embedded into the course, help participants to understand their own sensory systems and to experience the challenges that the people they are working with face on a daily basis.
With a mixture of classroom-based and hands-on practical learning, participants explored how to use the spaces and environment available in both school and clinic to support regulation and praxis. The workshop provided an opportunity to hear about the theory and practice of Ayres’ Sensory Integration, it’s application supporting those with autism, ADHD and dyspraxia, with up to date research and evidence supporting practice.
To find out more about our courses and learning here
We are so grateful to Abbot’s Lea School who have allowed us to use such a beautiful spacious venue. The three lovely well-lit rooms allowed us to create a pop-up sensory clinic, where participants had space to move about; extra room to break into groups supporting learning and the sharing of ideas. The school staff and local therapist volunteer support team have been incredibly welcoming and supportive, helping the workshop to run smoothly. As a bonus, the sun has shone all weekend which has allowed us to use the outdoor spaces, we have spotted a few daffodils and blossom trees around the city – it feels like spring is on its way.
Thank you to our volunteer therapists who helped to make the weekend such a success.
The SENSORY INTEGRATION INVENTORY REVISED FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES is available from Therapro.
Developed by Judith Reisman and Bonnie Hanschu, in 1992, but just as relevant today. This assessment tool was developed in collaboration with OT’s who worked with people with severe and profound learning disabilities, who could not cooperate fully in more formalised testing of their sensory integration.
The guidebook gives a rationale for the inclusion of each item in the Inventory, as an indicator of sensory integration difficulties. It also provides an alternative, sensory explanation for behaviors that challenge staff teams and carers, that are often presumed to be primarily learnt, behavioural or psychosocial in origin.
We recommend the User’s Guide as a learning tool for all novice sensory integration students as it provides down-to-earth examples that help explain many sensory integration concepts.
The application of Ayres’ Sensory Integration beyond Childhood is something our Director’s Kath and Ros have pioneered and that we specialise in at Sensory Project, mentoring therapists working across the lifespan and at ASI-WISE, through our workshops and courses, including lecturing abroad.
We are delighted to see the publication of this study (not ours!), and a possible new assessment tools for use with older adults. We will be exploring the use of this tool with clients in the UK and Ireland and hopefully be including our experiences of using it in our workshops; How to use and apply Sensory Integration to improve the health and well-being of older adults.
Abstract: There is need for a functional ability test that appropriately assesses the rapid integration of the sensory and motor systems required for older adults to recover from a slip. The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy and reliability of a novel test, the reactive leg drop, for assessing sensory-motor function in older adults. Fourteen young (YW; mean age = 20yrs) and 11 older women (OW; mean age = 76yrs) participated in this study. For each drop, the leg was passively moved to full extension and then released. The subjects had to recognize their leg was free-falling and reactively kick up as quickly as possible during varying sensory conditions. To assess the leg drop’s reliance on proprioception, other proprioceptive tests (e.g. patellar tendon reflexes and balance) were separately performed. Leg drops performed with the eyes closed (p=0.011) and with a blocked view of their leg (p=0.033) showed significant differences in drop angle between the YW and OW. Significant relationships between leg drop conditions and balance were observed in the OW that were not present within YW. When collapsed across groups, reflex latency was correlated with drop angle when the eyes were closed. The reactive leg drop was age sensitive, reliable, and likely reliant on proprioception, as shown by relationships to other sensory-motor assessments, such as balance and the patellar reflex. Although more research is needed, we propose that the reactive leg drop is an effective tool to assess sensory-motor integration in a manner that may mimic fall recovery.
To find out more click here or visit http://www.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1152/jn.00713.2017#
