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Ayres’ Sensory Integration

An Introduction
ASI WISE

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this lecture you will have:

● the ability to discuss the theoretical tenets

of ASI

● an understanding of the historical context

of ASI

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Dr A Jean Ayres (1920 – 1988)

Education
Early Years

Profile

Described as…

Watch her work

Dr. A Jean Ayres

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In the video we watched, her nephew

described how “So many of us focus on the
stars we can see…Jean had a gift …‘you
know, it's easy to see the bright stars,
but just move your eyes off to the side
and suddenly out the side of your eyes
are the less bright stars... you know,
those are the most interesting ones.’ …
And that's really where she spent her time-
in the realm of the unknown.”

from A Jean Ayres,

The Pioneer behind Sensory Integration.

“Sensory integration...the ability to organize sensory

information for use, results in perception and…
synthesis of sensory data that enables man to interact
effectively with the environment.”
Jean. A. Ayres (1972)

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What is Ayres’ Sensory Integration

Function:
A theory that describes how the nervous
system translates sensory information into
action
Dysfunction:
Behavior is linked to neural processes
Intervention:
Ayres’ SI Therapy and related approaches

“It must be faced and dealt with in an adequate

manner as possible, with full recognition of the
limitations involved and with the realization that
any conceptual framework is in some respects
erroneous. It will require constant revision as
new knowledge unfolds.”

Ayres 1968

“Theory is not fact, but a guide for action. In this

case the action is sensory integrative therapy to
assist children with learning deficits…just as the
continued production of research results in
constantly changing neurological concepts, so
also will this theory need to undergo frequent
revision.”

Ayres 1972

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Ayres’ Original Model

•Forming the foundation for integration are the sensory systems.
•Although there are seven that SI Theory considers,
•the emphasis in sensory integration theory has been on vestibular, tactile, and proprioceptive systems.

The senses Integration of their inputs End products

Speech and
Auditory (hearing)

Ability to concentrate
Language
Vestibular Ability to organise
(gravity & movement) Eye movements
Self-esteem
Posture
Body perception
Self-control
Balance
Co-ordination of two
Self-confidence
Proprioception Muscle tone sides of the body
Eye-hand Academic learning ability
(muscles & joints) Gravitational security Motor planning coordination
Capacity for abstract
Sucking Activity level Visual perception thought and reasoning
Eating Attention span Purposeful activity Specialization of each side
Tactile (touch) of the body and the brain
Emotional stability

Mother-infant bond
Tactile comfort

Visual (seeing) Participation in Daily Life

First level Second level Third level Fourth level

Published by WPS® 1979, 2005

Sensation is the only pathway the human system can

use to receive information from the environment.

registration
Processing
Reactivity
Incoming sensory
acuity

information in Context
modulation
Talking
therapies

environment Orientate
registers Interpret
Organise
Behavioural
processes approaches

Adaptive
adaptive Response
response
Smith 2008 adapted from Smith and Turner
2003

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Orientation and Psychoeducation

Identifying the Child’s

Strengths and Participation

OT’s use data driven

Challenges

Conducting the Comprehensive

decision making: a way of Assessment

thinking and working Generating Hypotheses

Developing and
Scaling Goals

Schaaf and Mailloux, 2015 Identifying Outcome

[adapted by Smith and Urwin Measures

Setting the Stage

2017] for Intervention

Conducting
the Intervention

Measuring Outcomes
and Monitoring Progress

“
…To understand sensory integration
more fully, you must know something
about the structures and functions of the
nervous system”

Ayres 1968

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Introducing
the
Senses

“The organization of sensations for use” Ayres 1979

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Postulate 1: Sensory
information provides an
important foundation for
learning and behavior

More complex behaviors rely on

the foundation provided by more
simple behaviors; development is
a spiraling process and sensory
integration follows a
developmental sequence

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Sensory Integration in everyday life

Self Care/Personal Care
Occupational Performance requires
that we can: Leisure and Play

notice and respond to danger Work Environments including School

communicate Personal Relationships

seeking comfort and security from

others
attend
stay focused
adjust activity level and emotional
levels for the task

Sensory integration processes underlie the

development of:

◎ Self-regulation
◎ Development of motor and sensory
skills
◎ Development of social and
interaction skills
◎ Sense of self

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Harriet’s Story

“the up side to reading

about what SI disorders are
like in children makes me
understand why I was like I
was”

Postulate 2: Sensory
Integration is a developmental
process

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Postulate 3: Successful
integration and organization
of sensory information results
in and is further developed by
adaptive responses

Postulate 4: The “just right

challenge” provides the milieu
for sensory integration to
occur

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5. Existence of the inner

drive

Postulate 6: Neuroplasticity

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Neurons

◎ Basic units of the brain

◎ Organised for function
◎ organising and reorganising all the time
◎ From simple to very complex pathways
◎ Connections shaped by experiences

◎ Make us who we are…

Learning about sensory integration – a new way of thinking and

understanding

Science and art

The brain can change; “at any time in life” !

Stroke rehabilitation –
latest neuroscience support this

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Postulate 7: Sensory
Integration is a foundation for
participation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux-tUQYUANA#t=25

Hebb and his researchers had hoped to observe their subjects over several
weeks, but the trial was cut short because they became too distressed to carry on.
Few lasted beyond two days, and none as long as a week.

Hebb wrote “the results were”…“very unsettling to us… It is one thing to hear that
the Chinese are brainwashing their prisoners on the other side of the world; it is
another to find, in your own laboratory, that merely taking away the usual sights,
sounds, and bodily contacts from a healthy university student for a few days can
shake him, right down to the base.”

In 2008, clinical psychologist Ian Robbins recreated Hebb’s experiment in

collaboration with the BBC, isolating six volunteers for 48 hours in sound-proofed
rooms in a former nuclear bunker. The results were similar.

The volunteers suffered anxiety, extreme emotions, paranoia and significant

deterioration in their mental functioning. They also hallucinated: a heap of 5,000
empty oyster shells; a snake; zebras; tiny cars; the room taking off; mosquitoes;
fighter planes buzzing around.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140514-how-extreme-isolation-warps-minds

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Postulate 8:
Many individuals who have
deficits in processing
sensation also have deficits
in producing appropriate
actions, which interfere with
learning and behavior.

● Ayres, A. J. (2005) Sensory integration and the child

(25th anniversary edition) USA: Western Psychological
Services
● Bundy, A.C., Lane, S.J. ad Murray, E.A. (2002)
Sensory integration theory and practice (2nd edition),
Philadelphia: FA Davis Company
● Mailloux and Parham (2015) Sensory integration in
Case-Smith, J. and Clifford O’Brien, J. Occupational
therapy for children and adolescents (7th Edition),
Missouri: Elsevier Mosby
References

● Smith Roley, S., Mailloux, Z., Miller-Kuhaneck, H. and

Glennon, T. (2007) Understanding Ayres’ sensory
integration, OT Practice, 12 (17) [online] \
● Available from:
http://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/cgi/viewcontent.
cgi?article=1017&context=ot

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