SIPT

The Ayres' Sensory Integration and the Sensory Integration & Praxis Tests (SIPT) is an assessment commonly used in pediatric settings to measure sensory integration skills that support learning and behavior. The SIPT was published in 1989 and considered to be a trusted and thorough assessment of evaluating a child’s ability to organize and respond to sensory input. The SIPT is a collection of 17 tests and its purpose is to measure sensory integration difficulties to help clinicians create goals and develop appropriate treatment plans for pediatric clients.  

What is a SIPT?

The SIPT battery includes 17 different tests to measure motor performance, visual, tactile, and kinesthetic perception for children ages 4 years to 8 years and 11 months.

Areas for improvement include that this test, in its current edition, requires more than two hours to administer, often requiring multiple treatment sessions. In addition, normative values are more than twenty years old, which can contribute to flawed interpretations of scores. The detail included in each test still holds weight when clinicians choose to use this test to collect sensory data for a broad range of skills that may impact a child’s occupational performance.

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Administering the SIPT

The entire standardized SIPT battery requires two hours to administer. Clinicians can administer tests within the battery separately and in any combination, requiring about ten minutes for each test. Tests are norm-referenced with computer scoring available using software that provides the clinician with a detailed score report. A norm-referenced score is generated for each test, offering valuable information for clinicians when writing a comprehensive assessment of how a child’s sensory skills influence participation in their daily routine. 

To administer the complete test, the child will need functional attention skills to complete individual tests. Children with attention difficulties may need to take the test by administering tests independently. As with most assessments, structured observations occur during the test as opportunities to assess how a child performs and interacts with test items that will offer additional data to complement scores.

Using SIPT Results for treatment planning

The SIPT battery of tests is still used today for collecting and measuring data to help clinicians with a client’s sensory integration and praxis abilities. Critics argue that the normative samples need to be updated along with a newer edition of information to help clinicians extend their reach of addressing sensory difficulties. 

With the SIPT assessment being over 30 years old, there are many current educational training sessions and courses clinicians can take to refresh their knowledge about skills covered in the Ayers SIPT assessment and Sensory Theories. 

A newer assessment that is internationally recognized is the Evaluation in Ayers Sensory Integration (EASI), which achieves a similar purpose of assessing children with sensory processing difficulties. The SIPT is still considered relevant, but therapists are encouraged to review the EASI to use clinical judgment for which test is best for their clients. 

The SIPT can be used as an outcome measure to add detailed intervention plans and set appropriate goals to combine skills assessed with occupational performance. The SIPT can monitor progress over time, but clinicians are encouraged to maintain standardization and be careful of test-retest validity.

Why is SIPT being phased out?

The SIPT was once considered the gold standard in assessing sensory processing disorders. Some may still argue that the SIPT is gold standard but with growing caseloads, not all therapists have availability to administer the SIPT, requiring three hours. 

Newer approaches are more centered on the client and their caregivers than in the past which may require therapists administering parts of the SIPT instead of the complete assessment in one session, while also building in more opportunities to gather caregiver input. Involving caregivers in the assessment process, sets a productive tone to collaborate with caregivers when assessing and creating a path for navigating an OT evaluation and creating a plan of care. 

Results from the SIPT offer details on specific sensory skills and information can be shared across disciplines and settings for occupational therapy to define specific areas of difficulty and how difficulties are impacting daily participation. With such thorough detail, therapists can directly link skills to occupational participation to provide strategies for various settings such as in a home or school environment to also promote coordinated care for improved outcomes.   

Conclusion

The SIPT is a great assessment for clinicians looking to add more depth to their sensory skill evaluations to measure tactile, visual, motor performance and kinesthetic perception. The SIPT can also help clinicians specify exact skills that may impair a child’s performance for behavior, learning disabilities or emotional regulation. 

The test requires a significant amount of time to administer and requires the child to demonstrate a sturdy amount of attention and motor skills that limit the convenience of using this test daily. With that said, there may be settings that the SIPT offers invaluable information that can provide missing information into a child’s treatment plan, allowing therapy to use scores to generate an effective treatment plan.