2023 Volume 19 Issue 1 Pages 87-95
The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of SIT on developmentally disabled children with sensory integration disorder.
The subjects were children with developmental disabilities diagnosed as autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and motor retardation. There were eight children in a SIT group, and seven children in a non-SIT group. The SIT group received individualized SIT at a hospital, and the non-SIT group received social skills training at a welfare facility. The training period for both groups was about 10 months. In a non-randomized controlled trial, the effectiveness of SIT was examined by comparing the differences in SSP, DAM, and S-JPAN scores before and after therapy. No significant differences in changes of these scores were found between the non-SIT and SIT groups before and after the intervention. However, the SIT group showed a significant difference in the subdomains of hyporesponsiveness and sensory seeking (p < .05). A marginal difference was also observed in visual and auditory hypersensitivity (p < .1). The DAM showed a marginal difference in pre- and post-intervention differences between the two groups (p < .1). The S-JPAN showed a significant difference between the two groups (p < .05). In the present study, SIT was found to improve the sensory processing function, body schemas, and some praxes of children with sensory integration disorder. In the future, we would like to consider homogenizing the target children's disorders, expanding the sample size, and conducting a randomized controlled trial.
