St. Luke’s-Elks Children’s Rehab is proud to have an Occupational Therapist and Speech Therapist certified in Sensory Integration.  Although all of our therapists can provide quality Sensory Integration based therapy, certified therapists have an advanced knowledge of treatment and can provide testing that those without the certification cannot. 

What is Sensory Integration?
Sensory Integration is a neurodevelopmental theory, developed by Dr. Jean Ayres, that describes how individuals gather, organize and interpret various sensations from their body and from the environment (vision, touch, movement, smell, taste, and hearing) so that they can participate in various activities of daily life in a meaningful way.

Who can benefit from Sensory Integration focused Occupational Therapy?
Kids with fear of heights, balance issues, coordination issues, handwriting deficits, body and space awareness issues, oral motor issues, light touch/texture/sound/taste/smell hypersensitivity and hyper responsiveness, and motor planning deficits.
Sensory integration dysfunction can result in problems with self-regulation, attention, and behavior that can affect performance in school, at home, with peers, and during leisure and work activities.

What is Sensory Integration and Praxis Test (SIPT)?
SIPT is an assessment used for children between ages 4 and 8 years. SIPT provides a thorough assessment of visual and manual form perception, balance, tactile discrimination, bilateral coordination, praxis, and visual motor control skills in an individual. SIPT is considered to be the golden standard in understanding tactile, kinesthetic and vestibular functions of an individual to determine the appropriateness of Sensory Integration based intervention in an individual.

SIPT is composed of 17 short tests, and the entire test can be given in approximately 3 hours. Any of the individual tests can be administered separately in approximately 15 minutes. Each test has norms based on a national sample of more than 2,000 children between the ages of 4 and 8 years, 11 months.

For more information on Sensory Integration Therapy or Testing, Call 208.706.5549

	Kavita Patil, MS, OTR/L Kavita is an occupational therapist at our Meridian Children's clinic.
	Cynthia Talbot, CCC-SLP Cynthia is a Speech Therapist at our Nampa Children's Clinic.