by Ted Griggs

Brooke Sanders, OT, helps autistic patient on a bolster swing. The swing is used to work on balance skills and postural reactions to help in functional gross motorskills like skipping and using playground equipment. s

At Women's & Children's Hospital, the kids romping in the ball pit or cavorting on a swing are having serious fun.

The play is part of Sensory Integration Therapy, a treatment for autistic children that teaches them to organize the information they're receiving from their five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell.

The idea is to find something the child likes to do and then use that motivation to guide them through activities that help them learn, said Brooke Sanders, an occupational therapist at the hospital and one of the few people in the area certified in SIT.

"You help them make choices that are going to help them," Sanders said.

For instance, a child might have a hard time putting together a simple form puzzle because he or she doesn't have the attention span or fine motor skills required to put the pieces in the right places.

If the child likes playing in the ball pit, Sanders places a puzzle piece on the edge of the ball pit. Sanders lets the child play for a set amount of time, takes him or her out of the pit and puts a piece into the puzzle. The next time around Sanders will show the child the puzzle piece or hand it to him before he can jump in the ball pit.

Since autistic children don't always have good communication skills, this method lets the child know what Sanders wants him or her to do. The children also learn that Sanders isn't taking them out of the ball pit arbitrarily.

"If they know they're going to jump in the ball pit, they're more motivated to put the puzzle together," Sanders said, "whereas if you just sit them down in front of a puzzle, they might cry or run away."

The therapy focuses on three areas: motion, or vestibular; touch, or tactile; and joint, or proprioception. Rehabilitation time depends on the child's age and the severity of the problem, Sanders said. It can range from six months to years.

With the number of children diagnosed with autism on the rise, proven therapies are also increasing in importance. In 2003, Louisiana had 1,924 children diagnoxed with autism, more than three times as many a decade earlier, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

The children Sanders works with range in age from 18 months to four years. Sanders received her certification in Sensory Integration Therapy from Western Psychological Services in October 2003. The therapy has been around for years, but research has shown it's an effective form of therapy for autism, Sanders said.

One two-year-old girl came to Women's & Children's after being diagnosed as autistic. The little girl could only line up her toys, climb up her couch and jump off of it. She wouldn't look people in the face and couldn't sit in one place.

But after two years of therapy, the little girl was able to join a pre-kindergarten class and function well, Sanders said. When she left, she could color, make pre-writing strokes and sit in a chair indefinitely.