This project--supported by the Science, Technology & Society Program at NSF-- is a case-study of the development of a new expertise that combined science, therapy and empowerment for a nascent profession. The central focus is on A. Jean Ayres, a woman scientist, therapist and pioneer. She invented Sensory Integration (SI), a new form of therapy for children experiencing learning and social difficulties because they could not adequately integrate information from multiple sensory modalities. Ayres combined a desire to help children with a recognition that scientific rigor was essential in diagnosis and treatment. She established a scientific basis for her diagnoses and treatment, using statistical techniques to identify symptoms and neuroscience to determine a cause. Ayres encouraged her students to set up their own clinics, diagnosing and treating children; in the process, she and her students elevated the field of Occupational Therapy (OT), from paraprofessional to professional, giving OTs autonomy and decision-making authority. Such a transformation met with resistance, of course, even within OT.
This project involves analyzing Ayres' thinking processes, including the development of her theory, her diagnostic tests and how she designed devices to enhance therapy. The project also studies the way in which her network of students and allies grew, and where her efforts experienced resistance. The analyses of thinking are usually referred to as cognitive, and the analyses of the growth of a network of practitioners as social, but in fact the cognitive and the social are inextricably intertwined. For example, Ayres was particularly open to ideas from students; therefore, her network expanded not by conversion but by incorporating the best ideas from those who were drawn to SI.
The Ayres case-study will provide valuable lessons for those who contemplate socially-relevant scientific careers, and these lessons will be highlighted in dissemination. This project will contribute to the growing field of psychology of science by improving on existing methods for graphing discovery, invention, and innovation in ways that can be applied to new case-studies by other researchers.
