HOPE CONNECTION 2.0: EVALUATING THE EFFICACY OF SENSORY INTERVENTIONS TO IMPROVE SENSORY PROCESSING IN ADOPTED CHILDREN

Abstract

In October and November of 2022, TCU's Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development hosted the Hope Connection 2.0 camp which is a trauma-informed, therapeutic intervention for adoptive families. Children in adoptive families often have histories of trauma which impacts many aspects of their lives. Sensory processing is the mechanism in the brain that manages incoming sensory information and is known to be affected by early experiences with trauma. The Hope Connection 2.0 camp is designed to address many of the effects of trauma, including sensory processing. This study evaluated the efficacy of the Hope Connection 2.0 camp at reducing sensory processing deficits and improving children's ability to process sensory input. Ten families participated in the camp which took place over two weekends. Parents completed surveys providing information on their children's capacity for sensory processing prior to attending camp and after attending the final session in November. The findings of this study show that some sensory processing categories showed improvements four weeks after the intervention, but some categories did not show improvements. The information collected supports prior research which has shown that sensory processing interventions show improvements several months after the camp intervention rather than four weeks after.