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Autism spectrum disorder is a kind of neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent deficits in social communication and interaction across multiple contexts, and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests or activities. The purpose of this paper is to determine the effectiveness of sensory integration intervention on emotional-behavioral problems in children with autism spectrum disorder.

This research was conducted in a pretest-posttest design with control group. The participants were 30 children with autism spectrum disorder (6–11 years old) who were selected through convenience sampling from among children with autism spectrum disorder in Zeinab center of Isfahan and were randomly divided into two groups of 15 subjects. The children of the experimental group received 14 sessions of sensory integration intervention while the control group did not receive this intervention. To measure emotional-behavioral problems, the Behavior Assessment System for Children-Second Edition was used. To analyze the data, ANCOVA and MANCOVA tests were used.

The results showed that sensory integration intervention improves emotional-behavioral problems and its subscales (hyperactivity, aggression, behavioral problems, anxiety, depression, somatization, attention problems, learning difficulties, atypicality and withdrawal) in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Therefore, it can be concluded that sensory integration intervention can be a suitable treatment for reducing sensory problems and improving emotional-behavioral problems in children with autism spectrum disorder.

The study of the effect of sensory integration on emotional-behavioral problems in children with autism spectrum disorder is necessary as a simple and non-side-effect educational and therapeutic method, both as a step to fill the research gap in this field, besides being a cheap and affordable way for improving the various skills of children with autism spectrum disorder for professionals, teachers, parents and educators.

Lack of research means guidance regarding the most effective sensory interventions for adults with intellectual disabilities is limited. Preliminary consensus evidence was created by gathering experienced occupational therapists’ views on practice. The purpose of this study was to establish important elements of practice when using sensory integration-informed approaches on assessment and treatment units.

A modified Delphi process was used to gather, explore and synthesise the views of 13 occupational therapists. Data was collected via online surveys and included quantitative importance ratings and qualitative comments.

An experienced panel was in strong agreement regarding many elements of practice they felt were important for use in this setting, and a list of important practice items was created. Two themes were identified: “Complexity” and “Pragmatism vs. Ideal World.” The themes highlight challenges to practice in this area and the complex clinical reasoning used to overcome these.

Participants disagreed about the level of importance of a substantial number of items, therefore items that did not reach consensus may still be important.

This study indicates potentially helpful clinical tools, facilities and training and identifies support needed for occupational therapists working in these settings.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge regarding how occupational therapists do and could work with people with intellectual disabilities and sensory integration difficulties. Although this study takes a UK and Ireland perspective, similar agendas regarding care and support for those with intellectual disabilities internationally mean findings are relevant more widely.

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.

Cognitive technology provides a response‐sensitivity metric for interactions between major influences on a response by an individual consumer. There is no restriction on the types of influence or response which can be measured, so long as at least two normal levels (or the presence and absence) of the influence can be tested independently of variations in other influences. Illustrates this novel methodology for open‐ended concept tests, free‐choice profiling of physical products, interactions among tastes, aromas and textures, and the integration of a sensory characteristic with a conceptual attribute.

The observation by the authors, based on their extensive experience working in K-8 public schools in the region showed the special needs classrooms catering to children with exceptionalities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Intellectual Disability (ID) and Emotional Disturbance (ED) are typically makeshift arrangements with no consideration given to students' unseen sensory needs. A thorough literature review indicates that there are no holistic design guidelines in place to meet the sensory needs of students with ASD, ID and ED. This study seeks to address this gap by providing considerations to meet the sensory needs impacting these students' focus, behavior and classroom engagement with course content and peers.

Sensory design guidelines were established utilizing a qualitative method, providing a foundation for the development of classroom prototypes that address the sensory needs of students with ASD, ID and ED.

The new guidelines, which correlated interior design strategies with the sensory needs of children with ASD, ID and ED, and the resulting prototypes provide a basis for the further development of design standards and takes designers closer to creating more conducive and inclusive environments.

This study reinforced the belief that these recommendations should be considered in the school-wide design. Many students can be included with their typical peers for all or part of their school day if space has been designed to accommodate their differences.

This study bridges the gap while documenting the correlation between design factors and sensory needs of students with exceptionalities, in this case, ASD, ID and ED.

This article outlines the nature of corporate marketing myopia and details the salient characteristics of a corporate marketing logic. The notion of identity‐based views of the firm is held to be highly meaningful to the comprehension of corporate marketing. In addition, the paper aims to broaden the understanding of the antecedents of corporate marketing by making reference to earlier, integrative endeavours (sensory integration, design integration, communications integration, branding integration and identity integration).

The commentary explains the nature, antecedents, and benefits of an organisation‐wide corporate marketing logic.

A corporate marketing logic characterises those organisations which realise their institutions and corporate brands can be important sources of differentiation. Moreover, it is held that organisations need to be involved in multi‐lateral relationships vis‐à‐vis customers, other stakeholders and with society at large. It is also mindful that an organisational marketing orientation should accord sensitivity to CSR/ethical concerns. A key precept of the corporate marketing logic is that it is institution‐wide ethos which is enacted via an organisation's culture. A long and a short definition of corporate marketing are enumerated.

Perceiving organisational marketing via the prism of identity‐based views of the firm and utilising the new corporate marketing mix (the 8Cs of corporate marketing) affords a practical and pragmatic means by which senior managers can foster and maintain a corporate marketing ethos and culture.

A corporate marketing framework is introduced which is informed by: identity‐based views of the firm perspective and by key corporate‐level constructs.

There has been an increased interest in marketing literature in understanding the role of sensory experience. However, few researchers have addressed multisensory interaction of visual and tactile evaluation for products salient in single sensory modality. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap and investigate how multisensory evaluation influences overall attitude and purchase intentions. Further, the role of individual personality variable in influencing the interrelationship between sensory evaluation and behavioral outcomes are examined.

The data for this study were collected from 126 students who responded to attitude towards the product and purchase intentions after evaluating three experimental tasks. Repeated measures analysis of variance was carried out to test the multisensory interaction hypotheses.

The multisensory interaction of tactile and visual information was found to significantly increase the consumer attitudes for products dominant on single sensory modality of touch. Further, the multisensory evaluation led to greater purchase intentions than visual or tactile evaluation.

The paper is perhaps first to investigate multisensory interaction of tactile and visual sensory information in evaluation of products that are salient in touch properties. The current study further examines the role of individual personality variables in influencing interrelationship between sensory evaluation and purchase intentions.

Emotion regulation is an ongoing multiprocess phenomenon and is a challenging developmental task to acquire in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who have different neurobiological profiles and emotion regulation problems. The purpose of this paper is to review recent literature to understand the neurobiological and psychological perspective of emotion regulation in ASD, while converging themes of psychosocial interventions and existing best practices on emotion regulation within this heterogeneous population are reviewed and discussed in consideration of intellectual disability (ID).

Review of recent literature and common empirically supported interventions addressing emotional regulation implemented in individuals with and without ASD, and with and without ID were included in the electronic database search through PubMed, EBSChost, Science Direct, Wiley Online Library, GALE and SAGE. Search terms used included autism, ID, cognitive control, executive function, sensory processing/intervention, emotion regulation, cognitive behavior therapy, mindfulness, social stories, positive behavior support and behavior therapy.

Neural systems governing emotion regulation can be divided into “top-down” and “bottom-up” processing. Prefrontal cortex, cognitive and attentional control are critical for effective emotion regulation. Individuals with ASD, and with ID show impairments in these areas have problems with emotion regulation. Targeted psychosocial intervention need to consider bottom-up and top-down processes of emotion regulation, and that standardized interventions require adaptations.

There are limited studies looking into understanding the neurobiological and psychological perspective of emotion regulation in ASD and linking them to interventions. This review highlights psychosocial interventions that are important for further research, investigation and development as treatment in this population is limited.

Equine-assisted therapy (EAT) uses the horse and its environment to achieve therapeutic goals as designed by an allied health professional (Taylor, 2010). The benefits of these interventions affect areas such as motor skills (Bass et al., 2009; Silkwood-Sherer et al., 2012), sensory processing (Ward et al., 2013), learning, social interaction and socioemotional development (Bracher, 2000). It was felt that occupational therapists could offer valuable input in this area. This paper aims to investigate the impact of a specific six-week EAT programme on six participants’ occupational performance.

Mixed methods were used in this pilot study, consisting of a pre- and post-design with two follow-up periods. Participants were aged between 5 and10 years with a diagnosis of a visual impairment, and some had additional diagnoses. The Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) was administered to parents pre-programme, post-programme and approximately six week after the programme ceased. Additional information from notes that contained children’s and parents’ reports was analysed thematically.

Five of the six children were rated as having clinically significant changes in their occupational performance. Analysis of parents’ and children’s reports on their experience of the programme showed the main themes to be: peer interaction, taking on new challenges, feelings towards EAT and change.

Although there are many practitioners of EAT in Ireland, there is little research, and none was found in relation to the role of occupational therapists within this context. These results indicate that EAT may be effective in assisting some children to reach a variety of goals. This pilot study not only suggests that EAT is worth further research but also begins to explore the role of occupational therapy in this form of intervention.

Many patients in residential and secure settings have no formal diagnosis of Autism but may in fact be on the spectrum. This paper seeks to outline the diagnosis and subsequent treatment and intervention planning for a young woman in a low secure hospital.

This paper summarises the literature in relation to the diagnosis of Pathological Demand Avoidance (an atypical presentation of Autism Spectrum Disorder) in children and describes how this diagnosis may present in adults. This search revealed that whilst there was a growing literature around PDA in Children, there was very little literature available about either the clinical presentation or management guidance in adults. A case study design was adopted.

The paper concludes that the lack of an appropriate diagnosis and inappropriate formulation of the underlying causes of challenging behaviour can lead to patients becoming impossible to manage. Many may benefit from diagnosis and Autism‐specific intervention.

This paper highlights the challenges of adult diagnosis of Autism in highly complex individuals and outlines novel approaches to treatment.