Reexamination of sensory integration treatment: A combination of two efficacy studies

Little empirical support exists for the application of sensory integration treatment (SIT) to assist children with learning problems. Treatment efficacy studies are expensive and difficult to carry out, and they have necessarily employed small samples that are inevitably heter-ogeneous. We have reanalyzed the efficacy of SIT by combining the data from one study involving 29 children in Alberta and a second study involving 67 children in Ontario. The results from each individual study, and now the results from the combined study, lead one to the conclusion that the therapeutic effect of SIT on children with learning deficits is not greater than other, more traditional methods of intervention. E ver since Ayres first began pub-lishing her theory on sensory integration treatment (SIT) for children with learning problems, its value has been debated. Early reports of its efficacy (e.g., Ayres, 1972) were based on poorly controlled studies. When Ottenbacher (1982) reviewed the first decade of SIT experimental re-search, however, he concluded that there was sufficient evidence of its value to warrant its continued applica-tion to the problem of learning disabil-ities. Ottenbacher's recommendation was that further research be carried out, to provide the data necessary for firm conclusions. Two recent reviews have summarized the literature regard-ing (a) diagnosis of sensory integrative dysfunction and (b) treatment efficacy