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At present, there is no research to support teachers’ use of sensory interventions in the classroom. This study aims to investigate the extent to how participation in a sensory processing training session would improve teachers’ competence, confidence and practice towards supporting children with autism.

A pilot study design with mixed qualitative and quantitative methods was used to evaluate the impact of sensory processing training on six teachers who taught at least one child with autism in a mainstream school. The Autism Education Trust Competency Framework and face-to-face semi-structured interviews were completed with participants both pre (Time 1) and post (Time 2) training session.

Quantitative findings presented statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) in results with large effect sizes in the areas of confidence, knowledge, implementing sensory strategies, adjusting sensory environments, reviewing and reflecting. Qualitative data provided by participants corroborated this and indicated a need for further and more detailed training in the area. There was no change in the practice of teachers consulting with pupils about their sensory needs.

This study found that the attendance of teachers at sensory processing training is justified and the promotion of sensory processing training is therefore warranted.

Findings of this pilot study indicate that sensory processing training for teachers does improve competence, confidence and practice towards supporting children with autism. Review of the session to allow more detail, including consulting with the children themselves, is recommended.

This chapter opens with the current thinking about sensory processing difficulties acknowledging the works, opposing stand points of the Sensory Integration Community, Ayres and APA and discussing implications for current assessment, treatment options and provision.

An experiential perspective is then presented from Graves’ work as an occupational therapist in CAMHS, from identification of commonly recognised presentations which can indicate sensory processing difficulties which include: ASD, ADHD, ‘fussy eater’, ‘emotional dysregulation’ and ‘meltdowns’ to detailing how these difficulties can be assessed and formulated with use of the sensory profile. Then the authors provide the practical examples of how to screen for these difficulties, explain them to young people, parents and schools and manage them through esnsory activities and environmental adaptations. The contributions from Howl’s experiences by working in the African Caribbean Community Initiative and as a specialist psychological wellbeing ractitioner improve access to psychological therapies for the ‘hard to reach’ population, consideration has been given to adapting these resources with the intention of them being more acceptable and accessible for use in work within BAME communities.

The chapter concludes with questions about the future implications for service provisions for people with sensory processing difficulties and how raised awareness of these difficulties might impact on other evidence-based diagnoses and treatments such as cognitive behaviour therapy (drawing on the authors recent learning on the CYP IAPT CBT course) for anxiety presentations.

Chapter 3 examines the attributes of an external stimulus, which the brain collects and models to construct a sensation. An important aspect of this process is the sensory system's filtering capacity, which removes extraneous and irrelevant information from the modeled information. The response mechanisms of all five senses are discussed to establish the practice of viewing the discipline (psychophysics) from multiple perspectives (senses). The differences in multiple perspectives on the same data is compiled into a model of the attributes to which the brain attends to engage with a sensation.

Previous research has provided limited evidence on whether and how demographic factors associate with sensory processing patterns (SPP) in adults. This paper aims to examine relationships between SPPs and sociodemographic factors of age, sex, education and ethnicity in healthy adults.

A cross-sectional study design was used. A total of 71 adult participants was recruited from the community, using convenience sampling. Each participant completed the Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile (AASP) and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales – short version (DASS-21). Demographic information on age, sex, education and ethnicity was collected. Results were analysed using descriptive statistics and multivariate analyses of covariance (MANCOVA).

SPPs, as measured by the AASP, were significantly correlated to demographic factors of age and education after controlling for emotional distress using the DASS-21. A statistically significant multivariate effect was found across the four dependent variables (low registration, seeking, sensitivity and avoiding) for the age category, F = 6.922, p = 0.009, ηp2 = 0.145, in the presence of a covariate DASS. The education category showed significance only in the seeking domain (p = 0.008, ηp2 = 0.10) after controlling for DASS. There was no significant correlation between SPPs and gender or ethnicity. Results also indicated that mean scores of participants in this study were “similar to most people” as standardised in the AASP.

This was a cross-sectional study with limitations including that the study used a relatively small sample and was based on self-reported healthy participants.

SPPs may correlate with healthy adults’ age and to a lesser extent education. This suggests that it might be helpful to consider such demographic factors when interpreting SPPs in clinical populations, although further research in larger samples is needed to reach firmer conclusions about possible implications of demographic variables.

The findings in this paper add to the growing evidence that suggest that SPPs vary with sociodemographic factors.

This paper aims to develop an integrative framework based on a convergence of embodiment, ecological and phenomenological theoretical perspectives to explain the multiple processes involved in the consumers’ mining, processing and application of brand-related sensory data through a sensory brand experience (SBE).

This research adopts a qualitative method by using face-to-face in-depth interviews (retail managers and customers) and focus group interviews (actual customers) with 34 respondents to investigate SBEs in the context of Chinese shopping malls.

Results show that the brand data mined through multisensory cues (visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile and taste) in a brand setting are processed internally as SBEs (involving sensory impressions, fun, interesting, extraordinary, comforting, caring, innovative, pleasant, appealing and convenient), which influence key variables in customer–brand relationships including customer satisfaction, brand attachment and customer lovemarks.

This study has implications for current theory on experiential marketing, branding, consumer–brand relationships, consumer psychology and customer experience management.

Cognitive computing is part of AI and cognitive applications consists of cognitive services, which are building blocks of the cognitive systems. These applications mimic the human brain functions, for example, recognize the speaker, sense the tone of the text. On this paper, we present the similarities of these with human cognitive functions. We establish a framework which gathers cognitive functions into nine intentional processes from the substructures of the human brain. The framework, underpins human cognitive functions, and categorizes cognitive computing functions into the functional hierarchy, through which we present the functional similarities between cognitive service and human cognitive functions to illustrate what kind of functions are cognitive in the computing. The results from the comparison of the functional hierarchy of cognitive functions are consistent with cognitive computing literature. Thus, the functional hierarchy allows us to find the type of cognition and reach the comparability between the applications.

Sensory processing difficulties can negatively affect children with autism at school. There is limited evidence to guide practice in this area. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of a sensory activity schedule (SAS) used in a school setting on task mastery and occupational performance in the classroom.

A randomised control trial (RCT) was conducted with 30 children to evaluate the efficacy of a school-based SAS. Children in the intervention group received SAS intervention and usual teaching. Children in the control group received only usual teaching. Outcome measures were the perceive, recall, plan and perform stage one procedural task analysis and goal attainment scaling.

Children in the intervention group demonstrated statistically significant improvements in school performance when compared with the control group in both outcome measures.

This was a pilot study with small sample size, so results should be interpreted with caution. Further research is needed to replicate these findings.

A classroom-based SAS may have a positive effect on classroom performance for children with autism. This has implications for professionals who support children with autism and sensory processing difficulties in a school setting.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study was the first of its kind in evaluating SAS intervention in a school setting using RCT methodology.

An emerging evidence base, and increased awareness of the effects of trauma on the body, advocates a sensory-based approach to treatment with posttraumatic stress and complex trauma survivors. This paper aims to identify, analyse and summarise the empirical evidence for the sensory-based interventions, which occupational therapists are using in the treatment of adult and adolescent trauma survivors.

An integrative review of the literature was undertaken. Both empirical and conceptual papers were included. An inductive approach and constant comparative method were used to understand and synthesise the research.

The literature search yielded 18 papers describing the types of sensory-based interventions used, sensory processing (SP) patterns and the context and evidence for sensory-based occupational therapy practice with trauma survivors. Nine of the studies were empirical and nine were conceptual and review papers. Themes identified included: atypical SP patterns; type of sensory-based intervention used with trauma survivors; and transdisciplinary treatment programmes can reduce the symptoms of trauma.

Sensory-based interventions with adult and adolescent trauma survivors are emerging as promising areas of practice and research in the literature. Although empirical data is limited, the sensory needs of the body in processing trauma experiences is becoming more recognised and are supported by the atypical SP patterns identified in survivors. A sensory-based, transdisciplinary approach to treatment has the potential to be effective in treating the trauma survivor.

With a skill base in sensory integration and occupational analysis, occupational therapists have much to offer the field of trauma studies. This review begins to address the gap in the literature, recommending more rigorous controlled outcome research with larger sample sizes, person-centred studies focussing on the trauma survivor’s perspective and continuing professional development and mentorship for occupational therapists working with this population.

Sensory experience profoundly impacts consumer cognition and behavior. This paper aims to illuminate the structure and development of sensory and experiential marketing research, to condense knowledge and to stimulate future research.

In all, 156 articles with 9,670 references serve as this paper’s database. The factor analysis on co-citation patterns of the top-cited 148 articles reveals the main research streams. The social network analysis unveils the degree of intellectual exchange between and within these schools of thought. The authors also map the temporal emergence of research streams and condense insights into an overarching framework that guides future research.

Early research in experiential marketing and store atmospherics emphasized the importance of affective reactions. Grounded and embodied cognition revised the understanding of the role perception plays in cognition. These developments culminated in the now most central research stream of sensory marketing, which bridges other research streams.

Although the research field is strongly interconnected, integration with other marketing disciplines potentially enriches the discourse.

This paper is useful for any reader who wants to gain a synthesized overview of the research field of sensory marketing. The framework presented in this paper can serve as a starting point for new sensory marketing research.

This paper offers a structured and unbiased account of sensory marketing and merges findings from diverse research backgrounds.

Chapter 6 synthesizes the psychophysics of sensation into a plausible model for the design and configuration of the learning engagement dimension of a learning system. In sensation, the task is to collect and review stochastic information collected from an external stimulus. In learning systems design, the task is the opposite: to design learning objects and activities that communicate the intended learning to the learner effectively and efficiently. The sensation systems focus their attention on the structure of the stimulus. Likewise, a psychophysical learning system emphasizes the interconnections within categories of content to configure the learning experiences. The curriculum embeds this information into a learning plan.