The SOI program has expanded to include a component called the IPP – Integrated Practise Protocol. IPP is an expert system that trains the body and mind to work together.
IPP is a program of:
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sensori-motor integration
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focusing skills
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visual processing training
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auditory processing training
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memory exercises
The IPP Program was designed to screen for and to remediate certain physiological problems in the areas of sensory integration and/or focusing skill which can prevent or inhibit learning.
All of these can get to the root of learning difficulties by addressing the perceptual problems that often underlie poor academic performance.
The goal of the IPP is to integrate perceptual input from all the senses, which struggling learners are sometimes unable to do.
SOI and IPP exercises, when completed together or in succession, can dramatically enhance the ability of our students to develop their cognitive function.
You can read more about how IPP works with the IPP dictionary.
IPP Overview:
IPP is an SOI program that addresses learning problems at a perceptual and sensory integration level. SOI testing and module training can address problems that are caused by underdeveloped learning abilities, but some problems that are rooted in causes at a much more basic level.
Perceptual problems:
If a student has visual or auditory difficulties, these can impair his or her learning at a fundamental level. If perceptions ar not processed properly, there is little opportunity for intellectual handlers to properly interpret the signal. It is difficult to learn to read if you are not processing the letters on the page properly. If the perceptual problems is acuity, that is relatively easy to fix with glasses. IPP, on the other hand, deals with the problems of visual processing - properly processing the visual signal that is presented on the page or the screen.
If a student does not have solid control of his or her body, it is difficult to organize and process sensory input. An adequate sense of perceptual-right and perceptual -left is necessary to make sense of inputs that are received. When perceptions cross the mid-line of the body, the perceptual processing must easily accomplish the change or it will loose the signal altogether.
Students who lack adequate perceptual , body control and sensory integration aptitudes will have difficulties with perceptual-demanding learning tasks, particularly with acquiring reading, math, and other sequence-dependent skills.
What is Sensory Integration?
Mary Meeker, Ed. D.
Sensory integration occurs in the nervous system. Sensory information is received from the environment through all the sensory systems: touch, hearing, vision, taste, smell, movement, balance and gravity. When all of these systems come together in a coordinated fashion, integration of these senses takes place.
Senses and sensations are coordinated by the vestibular formation, a part of the cerebellum which is one of the older and more basic brain systems. The organization of sensory information into reception and expression of information occurs when there is sensory integration.
The following functions are affected by sensing skills:
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Academic Learning
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Control of Body Behaviour
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Motor Skill Performance
A lack or delay in development, or a problem in one sensory area, will affect the other senses as well. An infant who has sensory integrative problems will show uneven development and as the child grows, he or she may appear clumsy or be slow in body coordination or demonstrate poor speech. When this kind of child enters the school system, he or she may fail to thrive academically or may show spasmodic or undeven achievement.
As a result of dysintegral sensory systems (which are purely physiological) children perceive that they are unable to function in the same manner, or as easily, as their playmates or siblings and a fearfulness of consequent criticism. Thus, they develop what is called an emotional overlay.
These children often are received by the un-knowledgeable educators and parents alike as: "stubborn", "lazy", "withdrawn", "immature", "overly aggressive", "hyperactive" or "unmotivated".
The key to separating dysintegral learning systems from other kinds of learning problems (emotional or intellectual) is to diagnose them through testing to assess the sensing strands accurately and early enough for appropriate treatments to integrate the sensory mechanisms.
General cognitive efficiency depends upon sensory integration. In order for the brain to process cognitive information, that information must first reach the brain in an accurate manner. This is not possible when the various sensory systems are providing conflicting (ie: dysintegral) information.
The SOI-LA Test is a standardized instrument which assesses the COGNITIVE components of learning skills. Eleven of the sub-tests are cognitive representation of the various physiological systems. When problems are reflected by the SOI-LA Test, and sensory motor dysintegration is suspected, we then recommend the use of the SOI Dysintegral learning Checklist. The four strands in sensory integration are clearly defined in the Dysintegral Learning Checklist**
They are empirically derived. One of the four systems assessed, the propioceptor system, DOES require a medical examination. The other three systems (visual, speech/hearing, and symptomatology) can be rated by teachers and parents.
** The academic and behaviour systems are also clearly defined since they lay the basis for emotional overlays.
SOURCE: SOI Systems Canada