Sensory Integration is a theory developed over more than 40 years by A. Jean Ayres, an occupational therapist with a background in neuroscience and educational psychology. Ayres (1972) defines sensory integration as "the neurological process that organizes sensation of one's own body and the environment and makes it possible to use the body effectively within the environment". The theory is used to explain the relationship between the brain and behavior and explains why individuals respond in certain ways to sensory information and how it affects behavior and efficiency in performing functional activities. It is based on the premise that higher cortical functions depend on adequate neural organization at subcortical brain levels.
Sensory integration cannot be seen, and its visible aspects are motor, behavioral and learning difficulties. For cases in which the child has dysfunctions in these areas due to poor processing of sensory impulses, Ayres suggests that treatment can occur by influencing neurophysiological integration by offering adequate sensory inputs for each case.
Sensory Integration is an area of therapeutic/clinical practice that has been consolidating and expanding with applications in different environments, including at home, at school and in the community, with several studies and researches that demonstrate its effectiveness in children with learning difficulties, behavior and neuromotor difficulties.
This intervention emerged based on evidence-based practice being used in children with learning, behavioral and autism difficulties, however applications of the technique have already been carried out in groups of individuals with a wide variety of disabilities and ages and in neurotypical children who may also have sensory processing disorder.
Despite the advances that Theory and Practice have presented over the years, there is a need to expand research, studies with clinical results in different contexts and with different populations.
This course comes up with a proposal to promote the training of professionals, Occupational Therapists, with a view to studying the Sensory Integration Theory based on Jean Ayres' studies, deepening knowledge that underlies the theory, aiming to train for research and clinical practice in this field. field of knowledge.
It will be a course taught exclusively by Occupational Therapists, with a trained faculty and intended exclusively for Occupational Therapists.