The Effects of Ayres Sensory Integration and Related Sensory Based Interventions in Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Scoping Review

Abstract

The theory of Ayres Sensory Integration® was formulated in the 1960s, and is also known as sensory integration (SI). It has been used in people with cerebral palsy (CP), though the research evidence for its effects in this population is contradictory and inconclusive. To fill in this knowledge gap, we conducted a scoping review of the body of literature on the topic, including any type of quantitative or qualitative research of SI in people with CP without any restrictions of age, language, geography, professionals involved, etc. In September 2020, we searched Scopus, ProQuest Central, MEDLINE (via PubMed), CINAHL Plus and the Academic Search Ultimate and Web of Science, as well as the grey literature sources OpenGrey and MedNar. Two reviewers independently screened the texts and the references lists of the included papers. We finally included seven relevant papers (four randomized controlled trials, two quasi-experimental studies and one case series), though not all fidelity measures required for Ayres SI were reported in the papers. The age of participants ranged from 3 months to 15 years; no studies were identified on adults. There is some evidence that SI or related sensory-based interventions (SBI) may be useful for movement development and other outcomes (attention span, therapy of sensory processing disorders, body perception and therapy of strabismus), but there is only scarce and low-quality evidence comparing interventions. We recommend to conduct well-designed randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with an optimal sample size on the effectiveness of formal Ayres SI for the motor development or other outcomes (as attention span or self-care abilities) using standardized measurement tools.