Sensory
Assessments

Sensory
Assessments

What Can A Sensory Assessment Help With?

A sensory assessment at the Purple House Clinic is aimed at helping children (5 years +) or adults who struggle with the processing of sensory information in their environment. Symptoms might include being over (or under) sensitive to sound, touch, taste, light or smells – or being uncoordinated and struggling with an awareness of space. Some individuals may also struggle to process what’s going on inside their body too, e.g. hunger, thirst and emotional experiences. Engaging in conversation, play and other everyday activities can become challenging or overwhelming due to these difficulties in processing sensory input.

Difficulty in processing sensory information can co-exist with certain conditions within childhood and adulthood including: autism, trauma and attachment difficulties, developmental coordination disorder, dyspraxia, mental health difficulties and learning disabilities. A range of sensory approaches, as well as Ayres’ Sensory Integration Intervention can assess and address these sensory processing challenges, helping people to engage in the everyday activities that matter to them.

What Type of Professional Undertakes A Sensory Assessment?

A sensory assessment is usually undertaken by one of our Occupational Therapists here at the Purple House Clinic.

Occupational Therapists are experts in understanding how physical and mental health challenges impact upon a person’s ability to carry out chosen and required everyday activities. They are skilled in assessing the nature of sensory processing difficulties and can support people to overcome these challenges and engage in the activities that matter to them, helping then to reach their full potential.

What Does An Assessment Involve?

A sensory assessment will comprise of a clinic appointment usually lasting around 2 hours. This will involve discussions (including parents/carers for children) and standardised assessments to gain an understanding of the everyday activities that have become challenging. The assessments involve a thorough analysis of each sensory system to understand whether sensory input difficulties are contributing to these challenges. The Occupational therapist will assimilate this information and provide the client with an in-depth assessment report, providing an analysis of the difficulties and therapeutic recommendations.

If and when required, an additional school-based or play-based observation can be carried out to strengthen the assessment findings and to provide further recommendations. School-based or play-based observations last approximately 1 hour.

In certain cases, it may be appropriate for an additional ‘sensory integration’ assessment to be carried out. This type of assessment provides a thorough analysis of sensory integration, for example, how information from the sensory systems is perceived, how the qualities of this sensory information is understood and what this means, how we react to this sensory information and how this sensory information is used for planning, organising and carrying out motor tasks. This type of assessment is undertaken using the Sensory Integration and Praxis Test (SIPT) which is the ‘gold standard’ measure used to assess sensory integration. The SIPT consists of 17 subtests and usually takes around 2 hours to administer. It does require a person to be able to focus and follow direction. Please note that follow-on sensory integration assessments are not currently available at all of our locations – please ask at your local clinic for more information.

Our assessments are appropriate for children (age 5 +) and for adults.

What Can I Expect Following An Assessment?

A comprehensive written report will summarise the assessment findings, identifying occupational and sensory challenges. Recommendations and goals will be tailored to individual needs, supporting people to engage in the activities that matter to them. A telephone consultation will be conducted to explain the findings of the report and to answer any further questions. Recommendations will take the form of sensory strategies, which can be implemented by the person themselves, family and carers, schools, college, universities or work etc.

At some of our clinics, sensory therapy is also provided. Therapy sessions are aimed at; educating the client/family regarding sensory strategies, facilitating the use of these strategies within clinic, using the sensory strategies to support engagement in everyday activities and/or engaging in Ayres’ Sensory Integration therapy.

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Please contact us for further information including information about fees.

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