Patterns of sensory processing in young children with autism: Differences in autism characteristics, adaptive skills, and attentional problems.
Girija Kadlaskar, Pin-Hsun Mao, Ana-Maria Iosif and 3 others
PMID 35999699WHAT IT FOUND
Most young autistic children showed mixed sensory patterns rather than uniform severe differences.
Children with definite sensory differences across all modalities had lower social and daily living skills and more attention problems. Those with mostly typical sensory profiles had fewer such difficulties.
Key findings
01Four sensory classes were identified: Moderate/Mixed (35.5%), Severe/Mixed (8.5%), Moderate/Broad (14.6%), and Low/Mixed (41.1%).
02The Severe/Mixed class had higher autism characteristics on parent report but did not differ from other classes on observed ADOS-2 scores.
03Children in the Moderate/Mixed and Severe/Mixed classes had higher ADHD symptoms than those in the Low/Mixed class.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
All primary sensory and outcome measures were parent-reported, creating shared method variance. This means the association between sensory profiles and parent-reported autism/attention symptoms may be inflated. The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot determine whether sensory differences cause attention or adaptive problems or vice versa. The Severe/Mixed class was very small (8.5%), which may have reduced statistical power for detecting differences in some outcomes like daily living skills. The Short Sensory Profile items do not distinguish between social and non-social contexts, and some items may overlap with attention/hyperactivity behaviors, complicating the interpretation of the link between sensory and ADHD symptoms.
Declared interests
The study was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that a child with a severe sensory profile has more severe autism symptoms as measured by observation. The study found that while parent-reported autism characteristics were higher in the severe sensory class, observed ADOS-2 scores did not differ between sensory classes. This discrepancy may reflect contextual differences in behavior or reporting bias rather than true differences in core autism severity.