Improvement in Academic Achievement through Enhancement of Perceptual and Sensory Integrative Functioning

The interdependence of psychological functions such as motor skills, perception, language, and cognition has been well documented by many (Hebb, Piaget, Kephart, Johnson and Myklebust, Frostig, Ayres, and de Quiros, to name a few). It is also quite well established that disorders of perception are concomitants of early academic problems. It is reported by Crosby and Liston (1976) that at least 10 per cent and perhaps as many as 15 per cent of children entering first grade may have neurologically based problems which will inhibit their academic progress. The process of learning is highly dependent upon adequate perceptual functioning (ability to interpret stimuli from the sense organs) as well as sensory integration (ability to filter, organize and integrate sensory information).