Sensory integration based paediatric occupational therapists working in schools commonly
function with a dual role of providing the child with therapy to assist the child to function
optimally as well as act as consultants in assisting teachers to develop strategies to help
promote the classroom performance of students with sensory processing difficulties.
A single-group pre test post test quasi-experimental research design was used in this pilot study
on a convenient sample of 11 participants to explore the effects before and after exposure to
the intervention of a sensory diet on the in-seat behaviours of the child and determine whether
the desirable sensory input is effective in improving the performance of children with sensory
processing difficulties during a handwriting lesson. The behaviours showing the highest trend of
improvement in the hypothesized direction included less distractibility and trend of work ethos
related behaviours (not giving up easily and completing the task; being less impulsive, not
working too fast, better planning; better able to initiate and carry tasks out independently).
Trends of various in-seat behaviours (restless, overactive and fidgety, disorganized on self and in
his work, difficulty in getting down to his work, slow to complete a task) to regress in the
hypothesized direction were also noted. Descriptive and statistical analysis was performed to
examine trends in changes of pre- and post-intervention behavioural scores. The data were also
analysed using Poisson’s regression to the normal distribution to calculate p values (using a chisquared
distribution) to compare the number of observations in a period of time intervals.
Implications of the results of the study for therapists working with students with sensory
processing difficulties and their teachers are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/7427 |
| Date | 10 November 2009 |
| Creators | Demopoulos, Maria |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf |
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