Research

What are some of the priorities for a new test?

• There is burgeoning worldwide appreciation of the importance of sensory integration as a foundation for learning and behavior.  At this time, current available performance assessments are limited, expensive, and difficult to access by the global community.
• The directions for materials and manual for this test will be available online for qualified professionals at no charge.  There will be some costs to print the materials onsite via 3-D and regular printing.
• Technological advances will be used to offer scoring options and data storage for large scale research projects.
• Initially, normative data will be collected on children 3 years to 12 years, with hopes to expand to younger and older individuals in the future.

What would we want to test and how might we test these functions?

Dr. A. Jean Ayres provided a strong foundation for understanding sensory integration and praxis constructs and how to assess sensory integrative functions in children.  Drawing on over 50 years of factor analyses that validated the complexity of relationships of these constructs and the way they impact performance, we are able to move quickly forward with the design of the new tests in the following areas:

Visual Praxis:  

• Motor free visual discrimination of shapes or forms
• Visual motor tracing and copying tasks
• Object manipulation tasks

Tactile Perception:

• Shapes
• Localization
• Designs
• Textures

Vestibular: 

• Vestibular-nystagmus
• Ocular motor control
• Posture and Balance
• Bilateral integration

Praxis: 

• Ideation
• Positions
• Sequencing
• Directions

Proprioception:

• Joint Position
• Force

Auditory:

• Localization