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The Discriminative Validity of the Evaluation In Ayres Sensory Integration® (EASI)
Zeynep Ender1, Sevda Asqarova2, Aymen Balikci3
1Department of Occupational Therapy, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Uskudar University, Istanbul, Türkiye.
Aim:
This study examined the discriminative validity of the Evaluation in Ayres Sensory Integration® (EASI), a standardized, performance-based assessment of sensory integration functions that underlie children's participation in daily life.
Methods:
The sample comprised 120 children aged 6-12 years, including 60 children with known or suspected sensory integration difficulties (SID) and 60 typically developing (TD) peers. All participants were administered the EASI. Group differences were analyzed using chi-square tests, Fisher's exact tests, and independent samples t tests. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analyses were conducted to evaluate the discriminative validity of individual EASI subtests.
Results:
Children in the SID group performed significantly below their TD peers across all EASI subtests (p < .001). ROC analyses yielded area under the curve (AUC) values ranging from 0.669 to 0.902, indicating weak to excellent discriminative validity. Subtests assessing praxis and postural control demonstrated the strongest discriminative accuracy, whereas several subtests showed weaker but statistically significant discrimination.
Conclusions:
These findings support the EASI as an effective assessment for distinguishing children with sensory integration difficulties from typically developing peers. Although discriminative strength varied across subtests, the overall battery demonstrated strong discriminative capacity, supporting profile-based interpretation and clinical utility within the Ayres Sensory Integration® framework.
