Introduction

Autism is a problem that affects a lot of children all over the world. Autism treatment is a complex process, which consists of both behaviors interventional and sensory integration therapies by experts. Behavioral treatment of autism seeks to identify and help in changing the potential self-destruction or any unhealthy behaviors from the victim. However, sensory integration is considered an intervention that synthesizes the principles from the neuroscience, developmental psychology, and occupational kind therapy to explain the specific importance role of sensory kind of perception and integration in the development along with the functional behavior. This paper, therefore, is an analysis of an article, to develop a clear understanding of the differences that exist between the behavioral and sensory integration therapies in the treatment of the autism (ASD).

Summary of the Article

The article offers an in-depth comparison of the behavioral intervention and sensory integration therapy in the treatment of challenging behaviors in children with autism condition. The author has a sophisticated understanding of the intricacies of behavioral interventions and the actual systematic application in evaluation as well as the treatment of older children with autism. This stands in a critical contest to the approach used in describing of sensory integration. Additionally, the article outlines the challenges which exist in the treatment of autism among children of different ages.

Literature Review

            A failure to appreciate the complex natures of the sensory processing challenges in individuals with ASD is a hindrance to proper treatment, especially when using the Behavior Intervention. It is essential to focus on a procedure for the challenging behavior among children with ASD with more significant consideration to the cognitive factor, and this relies much on the age and the IQ of the child.  According to Hughes et al., (2011), most people with ASD usually experience the critical differences in the processing and integration of specific sensory stimuli.  From the study; the development is the critical common factor across many studies over the last ten years.

One thing that is common across all the sources is that the behavioral approaches used in the treatment of ASD are more useful as compared to the Sensory Intervention Therapy; this is because behaviors take a relatively shorter time to change. Sensory intervention Therapy is more medical in reality and does not consider the input of the patients that are dealing with the challenging behavior of ASD.  This makes it quite useful as compared to the behavioral intervention but rather crucial in the treatment of ASD, which is in an advanced stage. The other benefit of the sensitive integration method of ASD treatment over the behavioral intervention is that the neural integration Sensory Interaction practicing helps in reduction of the wrong behaviors (Healy et al., 2009).

Studies have indicated that Sensory Intervention therapy is generally designed in a way that it does not measure the actual behaviors directly in most situations. Contrary to this, the application of behavioral intervention in the treatment of ASD is based on the principle of applied behavioral analysis. This aims at reducing the actual challenge behaviors and has a considerably stronger evidence base for effectiveness in person living with ASD, and especially children. Various studies have recently evaluated the literature on the behavioral intervention for children under the age of 8, school age and those with ASD between and are between 3 and 21 years old.  All the studies reported stronger efficacy evidence for the behavior analytic treatment of the problem behavior. There were three reviews carried out to compare Behavior Intervention and Sensory Intervention Therapy in the treatment of the challenging behaviors with the person suffering from ASD (Hughes, 2011).

Methods Section

In the study, a total of ten participants with ASD who met the criteria of DSMIV-TR were considered for the study. The method used involved examining co-occurring kind of challenging behavior among these children. The participant of the survey visited several settings, these include; the areas of children with mild learning ability, AS specific units which the mainstream schools and preschool. They then checked the IQ of children within the selected (Healy et al., 2009).

Results Section

The result was presented in two main aspects; the examination or analysis of the suitability of the Behavior Intervention and the Sensory Intervention Therapy in the treatment of the challenging behaviors among the children with ASD.  The first sequence, which placed Sensory Intervention Therapy against Behavior Intervention established that Sensory Intervention Therapy found an increasing trend in challenging behavior among the participants. The overall result showed that Behavior Intervention is more effective and reduces the level of the responses than Sensory Intervention Therapy. It was also found that the use of Behavior Intervention in the treatment is cheaper and takes a considerably shorter time to achieve the best results.

Discussion Section

The authors of the article outline the perfect means and factors which were used in the establishment of the difference in the use of the two methods and how they settled in the Behavior Intervention as being the most effective. They based their argument in the findings, which focused on the aspect of children’s age, IQ and the setting. The authors of the article also define the need for a specific method of treatment in the discussion. The debate also borrows from the literature on the same topic of treating children with autism and other related conditions.

Conclusion Section

From the article, a more significant difference exists between the two methods of treatments.  Understanding how a person with ASD process and integrates sensory information is critical for the professionals in the field; it suggests the best means of intervention or treatment for the person suffering from the condition. The strength of the article is that it is very conclusive and demonstrates the difference between Behavior Intervention and Sensory Intervention Therapy in the treatment of the ASD. However, the discussion is weak because it does not give a full debate on the effectiveness of Sensory Intervention Therapy. In my view, Behavior Intervention is simple and straightforward in the treatment of the ASD. One thing, however, which standouts out that a person with ASD follows a systematic sequence of steps in the treatment of the condition which begins with an efficacy studies with the aim of determining whether the Sensory Intervention Therapy or the Behavior Intervention is promoting the procedure for the person with condition (Healy et al., 2009).

Strengths

The article illustrates a clear difference between Sensory Intervention Therapy and Behavioral Intervention in the treatment of ASD among children. The title ‘Comparison of behavioral intervention and sensory integration therapy on challenging behavior of children with autism’ is accurate and gives an insight into the problem of study. The work is well organized and logical with no grammatical errors. The reason for the research has been identified in the introduction where Helena Lydon states that the review of both treatments helps parents to decide the best treatment for their autistic children. The participants used in the study had ASD and met the requirements listed in the DSMIV-TR. The setting used were three namely; special needs school for kids with learning disorders, an ASD particular class in a mainstream school, and a preschool for children with ASD. The experimental design employed was an AB crossover plan where the researchers embedded the cluster randomized sampling method to train staff in the procedures of SIT and BI.

Weaknesses

The research did not have an abstract to give an overview of the study; for instance the purpose of the study, the methods incorporated, the sampling method, the keywords as well as the results of the research. When choosing participants, ethical considerations were not observed by the researchers. For example; the participants were not informed about the nature of the study and the confidentiality of the participants was not guaranteed. The study only gave information about the number of participants used and the criteria employed to choose them. The article has limited knowledge; it does not provide a full debate on the effectiveness of Sensory Intervention Therapy.

Supported Opinions

In one of my practicums, I got to interact and help children in a special need class with disabilities and late development. I preferred using the Sensory intervention therapy procedure to the behavioral intervention because it was the most effective method. Its primary purpose is to monitor ARD patients who might benefit from a sensory integration approach. As such these behaviors are not addressed in the standardized evaluation and the client’s behavior affect the test-taking skill. Sensory intervention therapy is relevant to a person with disability and development delays. The SIT treatment helped me assess the children. Its approach consists of an inventory and a user guide section; the inventory has parts where behaviors indicating sensory needs are listed and the damaging actions of the child. The practices listed provide a guideline for the treatment of the child. The user guide explains actions perceived as psychosocial as well as a guide for occupational therapists. The research would have been different if the researchers divided the participants into groups of their disorder. As such the study would determine the best approach for each disorder and recommend it for treatment. Singling the disorders rather than generalizing would help researchers identify the best treatment for each.

Standards Check

The article poses the question, which is the best treatment for ADS between SIT and BI. Research is done to answer the question, and the method adopted is cluster sampling where 10 participants are used as the test subjects. Helen provides information about the recent studies of the problem to replicate the research. The articles follow the criteria of organizational with all sections as per the format of a research paper. References have been included to cite the sources of information used in the research paper.

Conclusion

ASD is a condition, which continues to affect most people across the world, and its treatment is, however, another problem. The use of Behavior Intervention in the treatment of the disease among children has been established to be more effective over Sensory Intervention Therapy according to the research conducted. This is because most of the ASD related condition are behavioral related and can be altered through the therapy.