What Exactly Is Sensory Integration Dysfunction?
Another drawback of the SID theory was that it was presented to describe a new phenomenon that had not been investigated before. Consequently, it successfully wiped out the research mentioned above, and limited itself to the field of OT. It is important to remember that the SID theory was not new, but the name of it was. Before that, the same concepts were described under the terms of 'sensory perceptual impairments', 'sensory processing disorders/problems', 'sensory dysfunction', 'disturbances of sensory modulation/information processing', etc. etc.
Even now, after several decades of intensive research in the field of OT, there is a great confusion of definitions, concepts, and notions related to SI and SID.
In the OT literature I have been unable to find a single, commonly accepted definition of SI(D). Different authors either use different terminology to discuss identical phenomenon, or apply one and the same term to cover different meanings, depending on the views, expertise, and research interests of the person who uses it.
The definitions of SI(D) presented in the OT literature can be roughly divided into broad and narrow ones.
The broad definitions
Ayres defined sensory integration (SI) as "the neurological process that organizes sensation from one's own body and from the environment and makes it possible to use the body effectively within the environment. The spatial and temporal aspects of inputs from different sensory modalities are interpreted, associated and united." In accordance with this broad definition, some authors describe SI as 'the process by which the nervous system receives, organizes, files, and integrates sensory information in order to make an appropriate response'; 'the ability to take in information through senses, to put it together with prior information, memories, and knowledge stored in the brain, and to make a meaningful response', etc.
And now let us compare these definitions of SI with those of perception and sensory processing: Perception is the process by which an organism collects, interprets, and comprehends information from the outside the world by means of senses. Sensory processing is the ability of the brain to process all sensations so we can interact adequately with our environment. Confusing? You bet!
This broad interpretation of SI leads to broad interpretation of SID, such as the ineffective neurological processing of information received through the senses. (Though some occupational therapists do distinguish between sensory processing dysfunction and SID - where sensory processing is the way the body takes in 'raw data' of sensations from the environment through all
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