6:17pm August 22, 2014

➸ "They did a study on sensory integration and it didn't help autistic kids at all."

into-the-weeds:

chavisory:

karalianne:

I was told that by a staunch ABA supporter once.

I didn’t have the words to counter this at the time, but here are the words now.

Did they use the exact same techniques with all of the subjects? Because that’s not how sensory processing differences work.

What was the criteria for inclusion in…

Also, a lot of “sensory integration” therapy involves aggravating the sensitivities in question. Which doesn’t actually result in desensitization, for the most part.

Just because the sensory therapies don’t work because they’re badly designed doesn’t mean that sensory differences in autism aren’t real or a huge source of surface behavior.

What the study actually found is that sensory supports didn’t decrease autistic behavior. The kids were still autistic. They weren’t assessing for calmness, quality of life, ability to focus, etc. Just indistinguishability. Which sensory integration…..doesn’t…..target…..

Thank you, someone knew what study it was! I never bothered to look it up because I knew it hadn’t been done properly anyway.

Just proves the bias of the researchers.

Which is one of those variables a lot of people don’t bother to consider.

Of course, it’s one of those studies that probably gets trotted out by ABA proponents as “see, it doesn’t work but ABA does” when, you know, sensory-related therapies aren’t meant to make someone “indistinguishable from their peers” they’re meant to help them calm down and stuff.

And yes, there are definitely people who practice sensory-related therapies incorrectly, too. Far too many people think all autistic people should be brushed or given deep pressure, etc. and that’s only true for certain people. You need to assess everyone carefully and watch responses and make sure that what you’re doing isn’t putting them into shutdown… which can look like calming down if you don’t know the person really well. And if it’s shutdown, well, you’re now abusing the person instead of helping them.

I don’t actually believe in sensory integration theory or sensory integration therapy. They’re simplistic and they don’t take into account how autistic sensory processing actually works. They’re just like these theories that someone’s painted over the reality, and they don’t actually mean anything. Like they’re too tidy. "Hypersensitivity looks like this, hyposensitivity looks like that, seekers look like this, avoiders look like that, this is what we do for this, that is what we do for that,“ and 99% of it is complete bullshit.

Autistic people do have differences in sensory processing, often major differences, but sensory integration theory is not an explanation of autistic sensory processing, nor is sensory integration therapy a solution for it, except sometimes by accident.

(My brother and I were both diagnosed with SID as kids btw.)

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