Your Therapy Source Magazine for Pediatric Therapists May 2015 | Page 8
Analysis of Sensory Integration Therapy
The Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities published a meta-analysis on the use of
sensory integration with individuals who have or at risk for a developmental or learning disability
or delay. The outcomes from 30 studies on sensory integration therapy were reviewed and
analyzed.
The results were the following:
1. Studies that compared sensory integration therapy to no treatment yielded a statistically
significant but small effect
2. Studies that compared sensory integration therapy to alternative interventions there was no
significant differences
3. Many flaws were identified including issues in clearly defining treatment, evaluating integrity,
poor quality of research and diversity of outcome measures.
Overall, there was little evidence that sensory integration therapy was an effective intervention
for any diagnostic group, particularly when functional blinded outcome measures were
analyzed. The authors discussed the minimum methodological requirements for any future
research