Article Reflection: Effectiveness of a Sensory-Enriched Early Intervention Group Program for Children With Developmental Disabilities

Blanche, E., Chang, M., Gutierrez, J., & Gunter, J. (2016). Effectiveness of a sensory-enriched early intervention group program for children with developmental disabilities. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 70(5). doi:10.5014/ajot.2016.018481

The purpose of this article was to observe how effective a group program called the Interdisciplinary Sensory-Enriched Early Intervention (ISEEI) for children who have developmental delays.  ISEEI was designed in part by occupational therapists and can have up to 12 children in a group.  Ideally, the ratio of adult to child is 1:3.  This program involved consultations in the home, excursions to parks or places of recreation, and courses designed to train parents of those with developmental delays.  The children in this study attended the group program 2-3 times for week for 3 hours each time. The protocol for this group involved addressing themes such as social interaction, motor development (gross and fine), development of cognition, and communication/language skills.  For this study, each child was given individual goals based on assessment, medical history, and concerns of the parent.  Progress was recorded every 3-6 months.  The clinical bottom line for this study is that results showed that this protocol demonstrated statistically significant improvement in all developmental areas for those with sensory processing disorder(except fine motor skills).  Those without sensory-related difficulties showed significant advancements in language/cognition.

The most interesting and useful aspect of this study was that it broadened my knowledge of who the groups process can be useful for.  While in this class, I usually associate group interventions with people who have mental health related diagnoses; however, it is true that any population can benefit from group intervention.  The children in this study were in between the ages of 18-36 months which means that the role of the facilitator was most definitely directive.  This article does not explicitly say which frame of reference they used, but I mostly associate this population with Allens Cognitive Levels because those with cognitive impairments closely resemble the mental capacities of children in most cases.  In my Perspectives of Adulthood class, we were first introduced to the concept of Allen's Cognitive Levels.  We were taught a way to remember what the characteristics of each level is to think of the age group it resembles.  For example, Level 1 resembles the cognitive abilities of someone 0-12 months and level 3 is associated with someone 18 months to 3 years old.  That being said, the Developmental theory closely applies because the purpose of the study was to develop age-appropriate skills for each child.

One thing I learned from this article is that groups can also involve the caregivers as well.  When we made our group protocols for this class, we always had to keep in mind the client population; however, there are some cases in which we will involve the caregivers into the group process and their needs must be taken into consideration.

I enjoyed this experience because every time I read an article, I get one step closer to being a well-rounded, evidence-based practitioner!