Search results

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.

The study aims to evaluate: (1) How university students from interior architecture can create a forward-looking “Sensory Living” brief informed by both external autism experts and a specialist tutor, evidenced through Leeds City Council's live autism adult accommodation project. (2) Issues involved with moving an experimental studio teaching model online during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A grounded theory approach informs an innovative teaching model, run over two years, to create a better normal; challenges and opportunities are critiqued.

Feedback from experienced autism-specific experts raises recurring sensory and communication issues which frame a series of design problems to help inform the student briefs. Students learn that the designer as advocate for vulnerable users is imperative. Aspects of online teaching that can benefit an experimental studio teaching model are identified.

Identification of the responsive “Sensory Living Model” illustrates (1) How local authorities can avoid seclusion and integrate meaningful “continuous learning opportunities” into autism-friendly adult accommodation for post-pandemic health and wellbeing. (2) How to embed autism-friendly design in the university curriculum.

The study helps address some of the UK Government's “National strategy for autistic children, young people and adults: 2021 to 2026”.

“Ten Novel Sensory Living Themes” are uncovered to help inform the design of autism-friendly adult accommodation. These are of value to (1) local authorities and design practitioners in formulating design briefs and (2) universities in educating future designers of inclusive spaces.

In Vulcan 2 and Vulcan 3 I established the fact that every physical skill is a job‐relevant sensori‐motor activity. Some confusion is introduced when people start talking about sensori‐motor skills. Not all people mean the same thing when they use the term sensori‐motor skill. The purist — a rare enough bird anyway in the training business — would mean any activity with sensory and motor elements, no matter how simple or common they were. However the term has come to have a special meaning: some skill with some advanced or unusual sensory element or some unusual, rare, refined motor element or both, not found in the normal domestic skill repertoire. On a strict use of words all skills are sensori‐motor but one has to bow before the storm of common usage and accept the term sensori‐motor skill as meaning a skill with advanced sensory and/or motor elements. In order to avoid confusion, as far as this is possible, I prefer to call this type of skill an advanced sensori‐motor skill to mean that it has something unusual in one or both of the elements.

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.

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.

Operation Vulcan is a survey of the state of the art in training for manual, craft or physical skills. This is the traditional area of training expertise: companies and countries usually take this aspect of training to a fairly advanced stage before they consider extending their in‐company training activities into other fields such as management training and clerical training. Even today in Britain, this is the only form of training in which some companies engage. When small companies assemble together in group training schemes it is usually for the purpose of pooling their efforts in craft training. Historically craft training precedes technological and technician training by several decades. Here we have, then, the traditional training area. But it is important from another point of view: it is also the biggest training area in the sense that more people are trained in manual and physical skills than in other aspects. These facts make it all the more remarkable that the training revolution in physical skills has yet to happen. We have seen a revolution taking place in management training and, to a less extent, in commercial and clerical training, but in the sphere of physical skills things tend to jog along just as they ever did. We have, it is true, seen ‘Sitting Next to Nellie’ giving way to off‐the‐job training workshops; we have the module system which enables the individual to build up his own unique personal repertoire of skills designed to meet his own needs. We have skills analysis, but this is only vaguely‐comprehended and only partially‐digested. In no way, at present, is skills analysis seen as one of the indispensable fundamentals on which skill training should be built. A great deal of existing training in this field relies on getting yourself a good syllabus and then using this as the basis for instructing by telling and demonstrating. It is almost as though the sheer ponderous dead‐weight of tradition linked with the huge scale of the problem has absorbed whatever electric shocks could be administered by the technical innovators and the reformers. And yet, all the components of a comprehensive, rational and analytical system of skill training exist at this moment. Operation Vulcan is an attempt to collect the scattered and random elements and assemble them in some co‐ordinated form.

This paper aims to use a concurrent mixed method approach to explore the key variables that can influence customer experience at a food and wine event.

A concurrent mixed methods approach, using a participant-generated image (PGI) method, together with a recall survey, provided images with associated narratives, descriptive statistics, correlations and hierarchical multiple regression analysis to explore how attendees appraise their experiences based on their goals and the link between experience appraisals and overall evaluations.

Through the PGI method (N = 25), the authors determined that customer experience at the event could be viewed as a hierarchical model, comprising a fundamental sensory experience together with three higher-order customer experience components (fun, discovery and inspiration). A separate concurrent recall study (N = 598) demonstrated the relationship between the same four customer experience components and overall satisfaction as well as recommendation and repeat visitation.

The results suggest that to promote positive customer experiences, along with the product of the event itself, event managers should focus on activity programs that are fun, inspirational and novel, as well as sensory.

This study focuses on a single case study of an event to examine and extend our understanding of customer experience. The use of a concurrent mixed methods approach provides us with different types of data from two separate samples of participants. By integrating data from each study the authors are able to build a conceptual model of the salient dimensions of customer experience and then quantitatively analyze how these salient dimensions are related to outcome variables.

The urban development within the Ottoman Empire saw two major zones distinguished in the city – the residential area (mahala) and the public core (carsija). The same model was applied to Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Ottoman period (15–19th centuries). This paper focuses on the historic core of Sarajevo, known as Bascarsija, developed during the Ottoman period in Bosnia. This article aims to define the qualities of open spaces in Bascarsija, particularly its physical attributes, sensory experience and activities.

Firstly, it is important to understand the development of historic urban tissue. A transect walk across Bascarsija was used to identify several categories of public space. Following this, draws on theories of the qualities of space, open spaces in Bascarsija were systematically analyzed.

Types of open space were distinguished according to their purposes and relationships with their surroundings. For each type, it was possible to define physical attributes, as a reflection of the applied form, scale, relationship to nature, hierarchy (dominance) and local texture; activities, which depend on the current function and attractiveness; and sensory experience derived from the subjective experience of users which rely on current functions and physical forms.

The qualities of open space in Bascarsija are distinguished, highlighting the importance of such places. This paper contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the image of the place and values of the historic core of Bascarsija, laying the groundwork for further research and urban interventions.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a commentary on Grace’s article on multisensory rooms.

This paper gives a historical overview of the emergence and evolution of multi-sensory environments (MSEs) together with an outline of a current research project seeking to support best practice.

MSEs have become a standard feature in special educational needs schools in the UK with government building guidelines now stipulating the inclusion of at least one sensory room within any such provision. However, there is little research-based evidence from which design decisions can be informed. Instead, previous research has tended to focus on the effectiveness of MSEs for specific user groups.

The outlined research will establish some initial design principles for MSEs.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to be as comprehensive as possible about what is known about mirror neurons at this time.

Design/methodology/approach – This chapter offers a comprehensive critique including Churchland's hesitations about findings on mirror neurons (2011) which are balanced by Ramachandran's conviction that much of the research on mirror neurons is valid (2011). Following this is a summary of the results of the Mirror Neuron Forum (2011) wherein leading mirror neuron researchers exchange their views and conclusions about this subject.

Findings – The few single cells measures that we have show that they are much wider distributed throughout the brain than we have previously imagined. It should be stressed that single measures of mirror neurons have occurred albeit in limited situations. This establishes once and for all their relevance to humans.

Originality/value – The work on mirror neurons is a critical contribution from neuroscience to bringing the social brain into sociology and refining our understandings of intersubjectivity and of our biologically driven connections with others.