Clinical Data

In the 1990’s Claudie Pomares, MSc. MSEd., used the existing research on Environmental Enrichment to develop a program of Sensory Enrichment to help children with special needs.

After 20 years of consistent results, two randomized controlled trials, and an Intent to treat analysis of 1,002 children with autism have now been published validating Sensory Enrichment Therapy™ for autism.

Clinically Proven Therapy

In randomized control trials, children who added Sensory Enrichment therapy to their existing programs were 6X more likely to improve by 5 points or more on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS).

Remarkably, 21% of the children in the Sensory Enrichment group moved up by one whole diagnostic classification on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS).

The first randomized controlled trial at UCI

published in Behavioral Neuroscience, 2013

Results of the 1st Study
published in

In randomized control trials, children who added Sensory Enrichment therapy to their existing programs were 6X more likely to improve by 5 points or more on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS).

Remarkably, 21% of the children in the Sensory Enrichment group moved up by one whole diagnostic classification on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS).

The replication study at UCI

published in Behavioral Neuroscience, 2015

Results of the Replication Study

After six months, the children in the Sensory Enrichment group showed greater gains in their I.Q. scores (+8.4 points), compared to the gains showed by children in standard care alone (+1.5 points) after six months, as assessed by the Leiter-R test.

The children in the Sensory Enrichment group also demonstrated greater reductions in their atypical sensory responses (+11.4 points) compared to the children receiving standard care (+2.9 points), as determined by the Short Sensory Profile.

Change in IQ score (Leiter)

Change in Short Sensory Profile

In addition, children in the Sensory Enrichment group improved their receptive language, as assessed by the Reynell Developmental Language Scales, by 7.42% in six months, compared to children in the standard care group, who improved by 3.63% during that period.

Remarkably, 21% of the children in the Sensory Enrichment group who initially had been classified as having classic autism using the AutismDiagnostic Observation Schedule improved to a level below the autism classification cut-off. None of the children in the control group improved to that extent.

Change in Receptive Language

21% of Sensorimotor-Enriched children and 0% of Standard-Care children fell below the autism cutoff score after 6 months

A Study with 1,002 Subjects

published in Neural Plasticity, 2016

Results of the Intent-to-treat Analysis with 1,002 children aged 1 to 18

After 6 months of Sensory Enrichment Therapy delivered through Mendability's telehealth platform, children showed significant improvements across:

age groups,
genders,
initial symptom severities,
and
levels of parental engagement.

With age groups, we observed that the older teens progressed more than the younger children.

This is a great message of hope for parents who may believe the window of opportunity has passed to help their children.

Progress Rate by Age Group

Progress Rate by Gender

We saw a similar difference in enrollment in our program as we see typically in autism diagnosis between boys and girls. We saw 4 times as many boys as we saw girls.

As expected, there was no difference in the progress rate of boys or girls.

Progress by Severity of Symptoms

Both children with more severe symptoms and their peers whose symptoms are less severe showed statistically significant improvements, and the differences between them were not substantial enough to suggest that one group responded significantly better or worse than the other.

This another message of hope

Traditional autism therapies often show diminishing effectiveness as symptom severity increases. This is because traditional approaches, such as Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) or speech therapy, often rely on the child's ability to follow structured tasks or engage in specific behaviors, which can be more challenging for those with severe impairments.

Sensory Enrichment Therapy stands out because it activates the brain’s plasticity and self-healing mechanisms through multi-sensory stimulation, rather than task-based skill training.

This approach enables children across all levels of functioning to make comparable progress.

The study’s finding that children with more severe symptoms improved as much as their less-affected peers highlights the unique adaptability and inclusiveness of Sensory Enrichment Therapy compared to conventional interventions.

Progress Rate by Parental Engagement

The graphs in the study clearly highlight the critical role of parental engagement in driving the effectiveness of Sensory Enrichment Therapy.

As shown, children whose parents implemented 10 or more therapy worksheets achieved a significantly greater mean improvement in symptom severity scores (0.91) compared to children whose parents downloaded only 1–3 worksheets (0.24).