The following link is a fact sheet regarding the role of Occupational Therapy in treating sensory processing disorder: https://www.aota.org/-/media/corporate/files/aboutot/professionals/whatisot/cy/fact-sheets/factsheet_sensoryintegration.pdf
   Although Ayres initially developed her assessment tools and intervention methods to support children with sensory integration and processing challenges, the theory is relevant beyond childhood.Sensory integration therapy is driven by four main principles:
Just right challenge (the child must be able to successfully meet the challenges that are presented through playful activities)
Adaptive response (the child adapts their behavior with new and useful strategies in response to the challenges presented)
Active engagement (the child will want to participate because the activities are fun)
Child directed (the childs preferences are used to initiate therapeutic experiences within the session)Serious questions have been raised as to the effectiveness of this therapy particularly in medical journals where the requirements for a treatment to be effective is much higher and developed than its occupational therapy counter parts which often advocate the effectiveness of the treatment.
The AAP has plans to review its policy, though those efforts are still in the early stages.A 2015 review of research on Sensory Integration Therapy (SIT) concluded that SIT is "ineffective and that its theoretical underpinnings and assessment practices are unvalidated", that SIT techniques exist "outside the bounds of established evidence-based practice", and that SIT is "quite possibly a misuse of limited resources".Some sources point that sensory issues are an important concern, but not a diagnosis in themselves.Critics have noted that what proponents claim are symptoms of SPD are both broad and, in some cases, represent very common, and not necessarily abnormal or atypical, childhood characteristics. Where these traits become grounds for a diagnosis is generally in combination with other more specific symptoms or when the child gets old enough to explain that the reasons behind their behavior are specifically sensory. Manuals
SPD is in Stanley Greenspans Diagnostic Manual for Infancy and Early Childhood and as Regulation Disorders of Sensory Processing part of The Zero to Threes Diagnostic Classification. Is not recognized as a stand-alone diagnosis in the manuals ICD-10 or in the recently updated DSM-5, but unusual reactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects is included as a possible but not necessary criterion for the diagnosis of autism. History
Sensory processing disorder as a specific form of atypical functioning was first described by occupational therapist Anna Jean Ayres (1920–1989).