ABSTRACT

Objective : The aims of this study were to investigate the effects of a sensory integration centered occupational therapy program on occupational performance in children with developmental disabilities utilizing the DeGangi-Berk Test of Sensory Integration(TSI), the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills(AMPS) and the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure(COPM) and to provide clinical guideline of evaluation and treatment by exploring relationships between occupational performance components and occupational performanceskills.Methods : Thirty children with developmental disabilities between 3 and 13 years of age from community programs in Seosan, Hongseong, Dangjin participated in this study. Each child participated in 20 to 24 sessions of a sensory integration centered occupational therapy program. The TSI was used to measure the changes in sensory integration abilities. The AMPS and the COPM were used to measure the changes in occupational performance. One group pretest-posttest design was used to verify the effect of sensory integration centered occupational therapy and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were used to investigate the relationships between occupational performance components and occupational performance skills.Results : The results of TSI, AMPS, and COPM scores demonstrated statistically significant improvement in all areas of occupational performance components and occupational performance skills (p＜.05) after sensory integration centered occupational therapy. There were no statistically significant relationships between occupational performance components and occupational performance skills except for COPM-Performance and COPM-Satisfaction(r=.840).Conclusion : The results of this study suggest that, first, the sensory integration centered occupational therapy worked positively on occupational performance in children with developmental disabilities, and second,in order to fortify the evidence that a sensory integration approach is effective, it is essential to evaluate changes in both occupational performance components and occupational performance skills.