What to actually do. This hub brings together the frameworks, interventions, assessment tools, and environmental design principles that translate understanding into action. Each is assessed honestly: what it claims, what the evidence shows, what the criticisms are.
Frameworks for daily support
Prikkelbalans · the four-zone model (green, orange, red, blue) for understanding and managing arousal. Developed through the Dutch SGL project.
Building an individual prikkelprofiel · a step-by-step method for mapping sensory processing across all eight senses. The foundation for personalised support.
Prikkeltaal · a vocabulary framework for making sensory experience discussable. You can’t support what you can’t name.
Low-arousal approaches · preventing escalation by changing the environment and carer behaviour, not the person.
SPELL framework · the NAS’s five principles: Structure, Positive approaches, Empathy, Low arousal, Links.
Environment and tools
Sensory-friendly design · designing environments that accommodate sensory processing differences. Includes the ASPECTSS architectural framework.
Sensory products and fidget tools · what they are, why people use them, what the evidence shows, and how to evaluate them critically.
Clinical interventions
Ayres Sensory Integration · the most researched sensory intervention. Recent evidence (2025) is positive when delivered with fidelity.
Snoezelen · multi-sensory environments, invented in the Netherlands for people with intellectual disabilities. Strongest evidence when the person controls the equipment.
Sensory diets · scheduled sensory activities throughout the day. Widely adopted, weakly evidenced.
Interoception curriculum · Kelly Mahler’s framework for teaching internal body awareness. The most evidence-based self-regulation approach aligned with neurodiversity-affirming practice.
Self-regulation frameworks
Zones of Regulation · the most widely used framework in schools. Does not meet evidence-based practice standards. Carries a risk of promoting masking.
The Alert Program · “How Does Your Engine Run?” Better grounded in sensory systems than Zones, with more concrete language.
Assessment tools
Dunn Sensory Profiles · the most widely used globally. Based on Dunn’s four-type framework.
Sensory Processing Measure · grounded in Ayres’ theory. Multi-informant, cross-setting design.
Sensory Experiences Questionnaire · designed specifically for autism. Distinguishes social from nonsocial sensory contexts.
MAIA · the only multidimensional self-report interoception measure.
Observed patterns
Stimming as self-regulation · the neurobiological evidence that stimming is the nervous system regulating itself.
Hypo- en hyperresponsiviteit · how hyper- and hyporesponsivity manifest across the eight senses.
Positive aspects · sensory differences as sources of pleasure and strength, not just difficulty.
Evidence gaps
Dutch validation gap · no formally validated Dutch versions of the major instruments exist.
Intervention predictor gap · no research links sensory profiles to intervention response.
The evidence problem · why the evidence base is weaker than most people think, and why.