The Texas Occupational Therapy Practice Act, 454.006 (c) states, "The practice of occupational therapy does not include diagnosis..." So the basic answer to your question is, "No."
Additionally, sensory processing disorder (SPD) remains a diagnosis not recognized by most of the medical community. Dr. Stanley Greenspan, before his death, included SPD in his Interdisciplinary Council on Development and Learning (ICDL) publication, IDCL Clinical Practice Gridelines. However, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual - 5 (used by most of the medical community, including those CMS and private payers) does not find that the research on sensory processing yet reaches the threshold of a diagnosis separate from other conditions (e.g., anxiety disorder, ADHD). Lucy Jane Miller, PhD, OTR of the STAR Institute for Sensory Processing Disorders, is working on it, but has not yet achieved the necessary evidentiary threshold.
In school practice, the ARD/IEP team is the authority that determines whether the child meets state criteria for one or more of the specified disability categories that result in access to special education and related services (see the Texas State Commissioner's Rules Concerning Special Education). Our role as related services providers is to 1) assist the team with data-gathering so that they can make the determination(s), and/or 2) determine whether there is an educational need for our services in order for the student to benefit from his or her special education.
