Over 90% of children on the autism spectrum have sensory challenges. But sensory difficulty is not recognized as one of criteria for an autism diagnosis until DSM V released in 2013. This late recognition of sensory processing raises several critical questions: What symptoms are required for a diagnosis? What is the core of autism? For some, sensory integration is a crucial lens to understand children’s social difficulty and delays in language development. Some even argue that sensory integration disorder should be a distinct category in DSM.
Therapies targeting on sensory problems have existed since the 1950s. Occupational therapist Jean Ayres proposed sensory integration therapy (SIT) to treat children with learning disorders and autism in the 1950s. Around the same time, psychologist Newell Kephart utilized perceptual-motor therapy to help children with minimum brain injury. But sensory processing has remained a marginal perspective in defining and treating autism. Why?
We will trace the evolvement of sensory integration as concepts and practices from the 1950s till now. We will use this history as a way to examine the development of occupational therapy and the understanding of autism.
