Our standards &
evidence policy
Families are asked to make decisions about their child based on what a clinic tells them. This page sets out the rules we hold ourselves to when we tell you anything, so that you can hold us to them too.
Occupational therapy is a field where some promising tools are moving faster than the research behind them. That creates a real risk: a clinic can describe an early-stage therapy in language that sounds settled, and a parent has no practical way to tell the difference. We think the burden of making that difference visible belongs to us, not to you.
So we have written down what we will and will not say. If you find something on this website that falls short of what follows, we want to hear about it, and we will fix it.
Eight rules we hold ourselves to
We describe evidence by its actual strength
When we cite research, we state the study design, how many people were in it, and what it does not establish. A randomized controlled trial and an uncontrolled pilot study are not the same kind of evidence, and we do not present them as though they are. Where the evidence for something we offer is preliminary, we use the word preliminary.
We disclose off-label and investigational use before you decide
Photobiomodulation applied to the head, and non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation at the ear, are not FDA cleared for the pediatric uses described on this site. We tell you this in conversation and in writing, before you consent and before you pay. You may decline either one and still receive the rest of the program.
We do not guarantee outcomes
We will not predict how your child will respond, quote a success rate, or suggest that a result other families experienced is a result you should expect. Outcomes in occupational therapy vary widely and depend on factors no clinician controls.
We stay inside our scope of practice
We are occupational therapists. We do not diagnose medical conditions, prescribe or adjust medication, provide psychotherapy, interpret medical imaging, or advise you to change any treatment your physician has recommended. When a child needs something outside occupational therapy, our responsibility is to refer, and we do.
We do not use fear to sell therapy
We will not tell you that a window is closing, that your child will fall permanently behind without us, or that other providers have failed you. Urgency is a sales technique, and it has no place in a conversation about a child.
We tell you when it is not working
Goals are written at your evaluation and re-measured against that baseline. You receive the results either way. We do not recommend a second intensive simply because a first one was purchased, and you may stop care at any time without pressure.
We separate our clinical judgment from our financial interest
We have no ownership stake in, and receive no commission, referral fee, discount, or sponsorship from, any device manufacturer whose equipment we use. If that ever changes, this page will say so.
We correct ourselves in public
If something on this site is inaccurate or has been overtaken by newer research, we change it and note the date. This page carries a review date for that reason.
Our four evidence levels
Every therapy described on this website is assigned one of the four levels below, and every study on our Research page is labelled with its design and sample size. The level reflects the strength of the evidence, not our enthusiasm for the therapy. A therapy at an earlier level is not a therapy we think is unlikely to help. It is one where the research is still catching up to what we see in practice, and we would rather say so.
Multiple randomized controlled trials, or systematic reviews and meta-analyses of them, in a population similar to the children we see.
Example: Sensory integration for autistic children aged 4 to 12.
At least one well-conducted randomized controlled trial, with limited replication, or consistent findings across several smaller controlled studies.
Example: Primitive reflex integration for reading difficulty, which rests largely on a single randomized trial published in 2000.
Small trials, pilot studies, uncontrolled or open-label studies, or retrospective reviews. Encouraging signals that have not been independently confirmed at scale.
Example: Photobiomodulation and non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation in children.
Laboratory work, animal studies, or research in adults that explains how something could plausibly work, without showing that it does work in children.
Example: Much of the widely cited photobiomodulation literature falls here.
Who regulates us, and how to raise a concern
NeuroNest Pediatric Therapy is owned and operated by Erin Wiggins, a licensed occupational therapist in the State of Texas. Occupational therapy in Texas is regulated by the Texas Board of Occupational Therapy Examiners, under the Executive Council of Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy Examiners. We practice under the Occupational Therapy Practice Act at Texas Occupations Code Chapter 454, under the Board's rules at Title 40, Part 12 of the Texas Administrative Code, and under the Code of Ethics that the Board adopts by rule.
Two of those rules bear directly on this page. Advertising in a manner that tends to deceive the public is a ground for discipline under Section 454.301 of the Occupations Code. The Board's Code of Ethics requires that all marketing and advertising be truthful and accurate, that intervention techniques and equipment be evidence based and within the recognized scope of practice, and that the benefits, risks, potential outcomes and reasonable alternatives of any intervention be fully disclosed before consent. We have written this page to be held to those standards.
If you believe we have misrepresented research, overstated what therapy can do, practiced outside our scope, or fallen short of the commitments on this page, please tell us first at erin@neuronestpediatrictherapy.com. You are also entitled to raise the matter directly with the regulator, and you do not need our permission to do so:
Texas Board of Occupational Therapy Examiners
1801 Congress Avenue, Suite 10.900
Austin, TX 78701
Main line: 512-305-6900
Complaints line: 800-821-3205
ptot.texas.gov
This page was last reviewed and updated in September 2026. We review it, and the Research page, at least twice a year.
Ask us the hard questions
If you want to press us on the evidence behind anything we offer, that is a conversation we welcome. It is a reasonable thing for a parent to do.
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