I have mentioned weighted blankets, namely the Protac Ball Blanket in an earlier post . Indeed weighted vests (also known as pressure vests) work on a similar principle - providing sensory stimulation to potentially calm a person with an Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Unfortunately a 2010 study (by Dr. Sandra Hodgettes and her colleagues at the University of Alberta) showed that weighted vests had no impact on the presence of stereotyped behaviors in children with severe Autism.
DeLana Honaker is an occupational therapist, consultant and educator currently residing in Amarillo, Texas. She makes the following point about this study:
Honaker had reviewed two earlier studies showing positive results on children with weighted vests on her blog. One of those two studies was done on preschoolers with Pervasive Developmental Disorders, which include Autism Spectrum Disorders. Her anecdotal experience matches the positive results found in the earlier studies…
…Weighted Vest Recommendations:
In my experience in using weighted vests with over 300 kids over the course of my career and based on the evidence presented here, my recommendations are the following:
Use weighted vests calibrated to 5% of a child’s body weight at least initially. In my experience, some children benefitted from more weight - most in the 6 to 7% range with a few benefitting most from 10%. In these circumstances, I increased the weight 1% at a time and until the final weight determination, I closely observed the child for a period of days (usually 3-5 days), relied on teacher report and most importantly, asked the child for their impressions of the increased weight until we reached desired benefit. Again, most increases were only to the 6 to 7% range.
I often had difficulties with adherence to a wearing schedule of X minutes (ie: 20 minutes, 30 minutes, etc.). Teachers are so busy and must meet the needs of all the children in their classrooms that it is hard for them to remember when the vest was put on or sometimes to even remember to put on the vest. But I’ve had excellent success by pairing the vest with the activity. For instance, many times a weighted vest is used during table/desk activities as that is when the child generally needs increased attention to tasks (which the evidence supports is improved by wearing weighted vests). Thus, I would often recommend that the child wear the vest when he or she is sitting at his/her seat/desk and the vest should remain on the chair when the child is away (for recess or PE). Even if the time-at-desk might be for 40 minutes (or longer), I’ve seen no detrimental effect in any child for wearing the vest for a longer period of time. In fact, some children have benefitted from wearing the vest all day; again, the length of vest-wearing time is closely monitored by me and the teacher and very importantly, the child is asked for his input about the wearing schedule.
My final recommendation is to be aware of the social implications of having a child wear a vest in his classroom (particularly for children included in general education classrooms). Thus, when I would make a recommendation for a child to wear a weighted vest, I would also provide 2-3 other non-weighted vests (these I would pick up at garage sales or the local Goodwill store) and the teacher would assign the non-weighted vests to certain class roles such as one for the Birthday Girl/Boy or the Lunch Counter or the Door Holder or she would simply randomly assign the vests to other children. This approach has been very successful in vest-wearing compliance by the child and ensuring that the child does not feel or look ‘different’…
(sources: Weighted vests for children with severe autism: More evidence against them? - Child Psychology and Parenting Blog: Child-Psych.org ; http://www.delanah.com/2010/12/evidence-on-weighted-vests.html#more )