The Effect of Interventions based on Sensory Processing and Sensory Integration on Stereotypic Behavior in Children with Autism Disorder: A Narrative Review

Autism disorder is one of the most commonly occurring developmental disorders among children, which appears in early childhood in the form of degradation in the quality of social interaction, and repetitive and stereotypic patterns of behavior, interests, and activities. The stereotypical and repetitive patterns of behavior, make disturbance in attention and concentration, and cognitive development, and also damage to social performance and communication skills in these children, which interfere in daily activities from play to child's educational activities; this suggests that stereotypical behaviors should be minimized in any way. Whereas some scholars consider this stereotypic patterns in this children as a sensory failure to sensory stimulant. The purpose of this article was to review the effect of interventions based on sensory processing and sensory integration on the stereotypical patterns of children with autism. This was a narrative review. To find the studies related to purpose of research, using the keywords autism, sensory integration, sensory processing, and stereotypic behavior electronic, databases including Google Scholar, Scopus, PubMed, Ot seeker, and Scientific Information Database (SID) were searched. Finally, 12 articles were selected based on the inclusion criteria. Review of the literature demonstrated that sensory integration approach had positive effect on interaction, and reduced autistic mannerism in children with autism disorder. It seems that intervention based on sensory integration in combination with behavioural intervention can be effective in reduction of stereotypic behaviours in children with autism disorder