Importance: There is a call to action to develop guidelines that adapt Ayres Sensory Integration® (ASI) to school-based practice.
Objective: To describe development of the Guidelines for Occupational Therapy Using Ayres Sensory Integration® in School-Based Practice and explore their face and content validity.
Design: A descriptive survey with three phases: (1) development of the guidelines, (2) therapist review of the guidelines to establish face validity, and (3) expert review of the guidelines to establish content validity.
Participants: Five research team members were involved in Phase 1. Phase 2 participants were 9 school-based occupational therapists. Phase 3 participants were 14 sensory integration experts.
Outcomes and Measures: The guidelines were created in Phase 1. Survey and narrative data regarding face and content validity were collected in Phases 2 and 3. The context validity index (I-CVI) for each item’s relevance and clarity and a scale-level content validity index (S-CVI/Ave) were calculated. Percentage agreement via yes–no scoring was gathered for comprehensiveness. Narrative feedback was reviewed for commonalities.
Results: The guidelines describe ASI implementation in schools across a multitiered system of supports. Psychometric data support face validity and content validity. I-CVIs of relevance and clarity for all 58 items were >.79, and both S-CVI/Ave values were >.9, indicating excellent validity. All sections had 50% to 93% rater agreement, confirming their comprehensiveness. Narrative feedback was used for wording revisions or additions.
Conclusions and Relevance: The face and content validity of the guidelines were established, thus supporting their preliminary use by school-based occupational therapists for implementing ASI.
Plain-Language Summary: School-based occupational therapists support students’ participation and performance in their school occupations. Ayres Sensory Integration® (ASI) is one evidence-based approach that can be used for this purpose. Prior to this study, however, no guidelines specific to the school setting were available. This study developed the Guidelines for Occupational Therapy Using Ayres Sensory Integration® in School-Based Practice. The study also established that these new guidelines show strong validity. School-based occupational therapists can use the guidelines to implement ASI across all tiers of a multitiered system of supports to improve students’ access to their education.
