Single module fee: £1,175
- Entry Conditions
- 30 UK university academic credits - globally recognised and highly transferable
- 16-week course (fixed start and end dates)
- 75 hours of content + additional study time (including 20 clinical hours and 3 hours of clinical mentoring)
- Personal eMentor to support your progress
- Online access to partner Sheffield Hallam University Library and Disabled Student Support
- Student discussions groups
- Optional Live weekly zoom sessions with your eMentor and fellow students
- Optional Live Assessment Q&A Zoom sessions
- Content will be available to you as a resource after assessment (12 months in total)
- Free Microsoft Office 365
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Overview
This module in the pathway, SI Module 4: Advanced Practice, enables you to become an Advanced Practitioner in Sensory Integration and obtain your Postgraduate Diploma in SI. Once you complete this module you will be able to critically reflect on the experience of living with sensory processing and integration difficulties, with a view to developing and improving the quality of practice and service delivery for people with sensory integration difficulties. You will also be able to communicate effectively and appropriately complex relevant material to a range of audiences in your identified clinical field/area of professional practice. Additionally, you will be able to reflect on how to advocate for positive change within your scope of practice, as an Advanced Sensory Integration Practitioner. You will undertake a further 20 hours of clinical practice and your learning will be supported by a clinical mentor. Lastly and critically, you will be able to demonstrate a systematic understanding of the breadth of Ayres Sensory Integration® related to the underpinning knowledge, with a critical awareness of current problems and/or new insights, informed by research at the forefront of an identified clinical field/area of professional practice.
Assessments
There are two assessment tasks for this module. Both tasks must be completed and passed to pass the module.
Assessment Task 1:
100% of the module mark. 4000-word written assignment. This assessment requires the student to select and describe a setting and client group where the student thinks that an SI approach would be beneficial for the organisation as a whole. The student is expected to justify and provide evidence as to why this would be the case.
This assessment task is completed offline. Students must complete the assessment task by a set hand-in date in the final week of the module.
Assessment Task 2:
Advanced Clinical Experience Hours - this assessment requires students to submit a log of 20 clinical hours demonstrating that they have engaged in assessments and interventions relevant to sensory integration theory and practice. As part of this task, you are also required to have 3 hours of clinical mentoring.
This is a Pass/Fail assessment.
Weighting: it has no contributing mark.
This assessment task is completed offline. Students must complete the assessment task by a set hand-in date in the final week of the module.
Clinical Experience Requirements
This module will take you from the interpretive and intervention skills you acquired in SI Module 3: Clinical Reasoning and Practice in Sensory Integration: Intervention to advanced clinical decision-making and your ability to carry out SI interventions across the lifespan.
Sensory Integration Education (SIE) has introduced a clinical hours component into the SI Module 4: Advanced Practice to ensure you are as confident in the hands-on work of treating sensory integration (SI) difficulties as you are in the theoretical underpinnings of the client’s neurophysiology.
For SI Module 4: Advanced Practice, you will need to undertake and log 20 hours of clinical experience. You will therefore need to have access to at least one client who would benefit from an Ayres Sensory Integration approach to intervention, and for whom you can offer key aspects of SI management.
You can also split your clinical hours between working with several different clients and their families/carers. You do not have to work with just one client for all your clinical hours.
As we believe that clinical experience is a wide area, we would encourage you to explore many different aspects of SI practice.
As you are now an SI practitioner we expect the activities to be carried out by you, in contrast to SI Module 3 where observation of assessment tasks and therapy by others was accepted as part of your clinical hours log.
We anticipate that it might be easier for some clinicians to log the time in the clinic as part of their everyday work rather than to set aside additional online time, and vice versa.
What if I work in a setting where this could be difficult?
We understand that working within an Ayres’ Sensory Integration (ASI) frame of reference is going to look quite different for some clinicians. We expect you to understand what constitutes Fidelity in ASI intervention and to be able to justify practical and structural limitations and explain why you might not always be able to meet Fidelity for a particular client or setting.
Ayres’ Sensory Integration can make a big difference to the lives and participation of a very wide range of clinical groups, and we are keen to ensure that we support your learning to practise SI in your settings in whatever form that takes.
ASI is often described as the place where science meets art, and we would be looking for evidence of your creative problem-solving and appropriate adaptations to therapy so that it remains true to the principles of Ayres' Sensory Integration within the confines of your clinical context. We look forward to your exploration of the creative ways in which ASI is expressed across different professions and different settings.
Do I need to have access to specialist equipment or assessment tools?
The purpose of the clinical experience aspect is to help you to work effectively with your real clients in your real clinical setting within an SI frame of reference. There are many different ways that this can be realised, and not all will be ASI interventions or will be in full compliance with the Fidelity measure.
You would not be penalised if you do not have access to suspended equipment or other resources which are usually found in a dedicated ASI treatment space. We will be looking to see you applying the SI frame of reference appropriately to the demands and opportunities of your current clinical practice and for evidence of your developing clinical reasoning and intervention expertise.
There is no requirement to have access to a SIPT kit. The SIPT is still considered the gold standard assessment for praxis, and you might choose to interpret SIPT results that have been carried out by a trained SIPT administrator as part of your clinical hours if this tool is appropriate for your client group. You may also wish to carry out a SIPT assessment under appropriate clinical supervision. If you are not using the SIPT we would expect to see you using other relevant standardised assessments and/or clinical observations in your setting for your particular client, supported by your decisions for doing so.
How will I be able to demonstrate the clinical skills gained in my clinical experience?
In Assessment Task 1 we will be looking for evidence of the development of your knowledge, skills and expertise, along with changes in your clients’ sensory processing and integration.
In Assessment Task 2 we will expect to see a range of activities.
Mentoring
Why is mentoring included within SI Module 4: Advanced Practice requirements?
In line with professional good practice standards clinical mentoring is included in SI Module 4: Advanced Practice in order to enable you to:
Support and further enhance your SI practice for the benefit of service users;
Further develop skills in reflection, to narrow the gap between theory and practice;
Involve an SI Advanced Practitioner as a Clinical Mentor in your reflections and critical evaluations of practice.
How will I source a Clinical Mentor?
As you will be required to present evidence that you have undertaken 3 sessions of mentoring and supervision with your Clinical Mentor, there are two options available for selecting a mentor and it is up to you which you choose.
Option 1:
Approach a clinician who is a SI Advanced Practitioner (qualified up to SI Module 4) in your current workplace, if this is available to you.
Option 2:
Select an SI Advanced Practitioner (qualified up to SI Module 4) from the SIE Register of Clinical Mentors. This Register includes Advanced Practitioners with SI expertise in the following areas:
- Paediatrics
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health
- Adult Mental Health
- Forensics
- Attachment and Trauma
- Older Adults
- Learning Disability
Mentoring Fees
If you are selecting a workplace Clinical Mentor, they may agree to support you without remuneration, or they may require a mentoring fee for sessions.
If you are selecting a Clinical Mentor from the SIE Register of Clinical Mentors you will see their fee displayed on the Register in addition to their clinical expertise, profession and location.
Please note that the mentoring contract will be between you and the mentor. As these fees are external to the cost of the module, payments should be made by you directly to the Clinical Mentor.
Currently the fees on the Clinical Register are approximately £50.00 GBP per hour mentoring session. You will need to arrange three mentoring sessions.
Clinical mentoring can be carried out by a variety of methods, i.e. virtually (e.g. Skype), phone or face-to-face. Full details of how to discuss and share clinical information with your Clinical Mentor to ensure client confidentiality and data protection compliance will be given to you at the start of the module.
Can a Clinical Mentor provide more than three sessions per mentee?
There is no restriction on the length or the number of mentoring sessions. If additional sessions are requested by the mentee and agreed upon by both parties.
Can Clinical Mentors provide mentoring to someone in their department or place of work?
Yes, they can do this if they and the mentee are satisfied that you will be able to provide objective feedback on their work.
Do Clinical Mentors have to travel to the mentees’ place of work for mentoring?
No, this is not a requirement. Mentees typically arrange mentoring sessions in a venue that is convenient for both parties. This can be face to face or online, via phone, skype, facetime or similar.
Is it the Clinical Mentor’s responsibility to sign off the 20 hours of clinical practice for a mentee?
No, this will be completed by an identified person in the clinical hours setting/s.
Do I need a workplace mentor AND an SIE Clinical Mentor?
No. If your workplace mentor is approved you do not need an SIE Clinical Mentor in addition. If you have arranged an SIE Clinical Mentor for SI Module 3: Clinical Reasoning and Practice in Sensory Integration: Intervention, you do not need to also have a workplace mentor.
