Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have documented sensory processing difficulties across the lifespan; however there is limited empirical support for the sensory-based interventions that have become ubiquitous with the population. This study was conducted to address this need and examine the effect of sensory-based interventions on skill acquisition for five elementary-age students with ASD. Proponents suggest that sensory-based interventions can be used to facilitate optimal levels of arousal so that children are available for learning. A single-case alternating treatments design was used to evaluate functional relations between the two sensory-based antecedent interventions and correct responding on expressive identification tasks. Upon visual analysis of the graphed data, functional relations were apparent for two participants. A positive relation between one sensory activity and correct responses was evident for a third student, but his rate of skill acquisition was too slow to verify a functional relation during the study. Results were undifferentiated for two students; one reached mastery criteria with both sensory-based interventions, while one made only modest improvement in expressive identification. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to identify predictors of growth. Scrutiny of the results of the level-1 analysis revealed that there were significant differences among the participants at the start of the study (00 = 388.46, ²(4) = 45.97, p < .001) and that all of the students made significant gains during the study (10 = 2.35, t(4) = 3.43, p < .05). Using treatment as a predictor in Model 2 resulted in the finding of no significance for the sensory-based interventions in predicting growth. The two biggest level-2 predictors of student growth were age (11 = 0.055, t(2) = 6.403, p < .001) and IQ (22 = 0.21, t(2) = 13.41, p < .001). Although not clinically significant, Childhood Autism Rating Scale scores as a level-2 predictor of growth may have practical significance. Implications for mixed-modality research and applied practice are discussed.

Bakgrund: Forskning visar på att barn med funktionsnedsättningar vill delta i alla aktiviteter i skolan men att de inte kan. Detta kan bero på brist på anpassningar och stöd, insatser kopplade till arbetsterapeutens kompetensområden. I många länder är arbetsterapeuter anställda inom skolan men i Sverige är det mindre vanligt att en arbetsterapeut ingår i skolverksamheten.Syfte: Att beskriva hur arbetsterapeuter arbetar med barn med autismspektrumtillstånd i skolan. Metod: Studiedesignen som användes var scoping review. Datainsamlingen skedde genom en litteratursökning med sökord relevanta för syftet, sökningarna gjordes i databaserna AMED, PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Medline och ERIC. Litteratursökningen kompletterades med manuella sökningar i andra studiers referenslistor. Litteratursökningen resulterade i 14 artiklar samt 6 artiklar från de manuella sökningarna, vilket blev totalt 20 artiklar. Resultat: Studien resulterade i två övergripande kategorier; utredningar och interventioner, med sex underkategorier; intervju, observation, interventioner för utmanande beteende, hjälpmedel och träning i att använda hjälpmedel, sensoriska interventioner samt interventioner för sociala färdigheter. Slutsats är att det förekommer många interventioner för barn med autismspektrumtillstånd i skolan som kan bidra till att dessa barn får samma möjligheter att klara av skolan som andra. / Background: Research shows that children with disabilities wants to participate in all activities in school but that they can’t. This may be due to lack of adaptations and support, interventions linked to the occupational therapist's areas of competence. In many countries, occupational therapists are employees of the school, but in Sweden it is less common for an occupational therapist to be included in the school staff. Purpose: To describe how occupational therapists work with children with autism spectrum disorder in school. Method: The study design used was scoping review. The data collection was done through a literature search with keywords relevant to the purpose, the searches were made in the databases AMED, PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Medline and ERIC. The literature search was supplemented with manual searches in other studies reference lists. The literature search resulted in 14 articles and 6 articles from the manual searches, a total of 20 articles were included. Result: The study resulted in two overarching categories; investigations and interventions, with six subcategories; interview, observation, interventions for challenging behavior, aids and training in using assistive devices, interventions for sensory processing and interventions for social skills. Conclusion: there are many interventions for children with autism spectrum in school that can help these children to have the same opportunities to cope with school as others.