A Literature Review on The Effects of Sensory Integration for Special Needs Children

Social Science, Psychology, Special Needs

Sensory integration (SI) is a natural process of human that involved brain. In this process, information from environment receives by all the senses of human namely visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory, vestibular, proprioception, and tactile system will be managed then given meaning and filtered whether the information was important or not. Nowadays, SI is widely applied diagnosing and treating special needs children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). SI is widely used approach for the interventions with diverse circumstances and symptomology, but more studies are needed to determine on the effects of the SI. To examine and fill in the existed gaps, present study applied narrative review to synthesize and discuss in details on the effects of sensory integration toward the special needs children focusing on children with ASD and ADHD. Inconsistent results from previous studies are founded, and SI is helping in enhancement of various aspects and skills of the children with ASD and ADHD. Sensory integration development by Williams and Shellenberger (1996) is used to explain and summary present study. More future studies are recommended to fill this large existing gap, and strong scientific evidence for the effectiveness of SI interventions is urgently needed. Additionally, future researchers or practitioners of SI encouraged to determine the optimal intensity zone for the individuals which is the “just-right” challenge to maximize their performance along with the development of skills during the SI intervention.

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