Occupational Therapy Assistant Test Sensory Processing and Integration Flashcards
6 cards from real OTA practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 6 Occupational Therapy Assistant Test Sensory Processing and Integration flashcards as text
A child with dyspraxia (developmental coordination disorder) is MOST likely to have difficulty with:
Answer: Planning and executing novel motor sequences in a coordinated way
Dyspraxia involves deficits in motor planning (ideation, planning, and execution), making it difficult to perform unfamiliar or complex motor tasks.
Interoception refers to the sensory system responsible for:
Answer: Perceiving the internal state of the body, including hunger, thirst, heartbeat, and toileting needs
Interoception is the 'eighth sense' that provides awareness of internal body states, foundational to emotional regulation and self-care.
When a child tolerates loud sounds in a structured therapy session but becomes overwhelmed in a noisy cafeteria, this is BEST explained by:
Answer: Cumulative sensory load — multiple simultaneous sensory inputs exceed the child's threshold
The cafeteria combines auditory, visual, olfactory, and tactile inputs simultaneously, creating a cumulative load that exceeds the child's regulatory capacity.
The 'just right challenge' in Ayres Sensory Integration intervention means:
Answer: Activities should be slightly beyond the child's current ability to promote an adaptive response without causing distress
The just right challenge promotes neurological growth by requiring the child to organize adaptive responses to activities that are slightly challenging but achievable.
An adult with autism spectrum disorder reports difficulty knowing when they are full after eating and often overeats. This is MOST consistent with a deficit in:
Answer: Interoceptive awareness
Interoceptive processing deficits affect the ability to perceive internal body signals such as hunger and satiety, commonly seen in individuals with ASD.
An OTA working in an outpatient pediatric clinic documents that a child shows 'gravitational insecurity.' This MOST accurately describes:
Answer: An emotional overreaction to any type of movement, particularly changes in head position relative to gravity
Gravitational insecurity is an extreme fear and anxiety triggered by movement or changes in head position, caused by over-responsivity of the vestibular-gravitational receptors.