Sensory Processing at Home Versus School in Children with Autism

Sensory Processing at Home Versus School in Children with ASD

Do you find that children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experience higher levels of sensory dysfunction at home or school? Recent research investigated sensory processing at home versus school in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Each of the participants (41 children with ASD and 38 neurotypical children) were evaluated with the Sensory Processing Measure. The goal was to compare different types of sensory modulation (over-responsiveness, under-responsiveness, and sensory-seeking behavior) in different sensory modalities.

The results comparing sensory processing at home versus school in children with ASD indicated the following:

the children with ASD had scores that indicated higher levels of dysfunction on all the assessed measures in both environments, with greater differences obtained in the school environment.
under-responsiveness was the sensory response that showed differences in all the sensory modalities and in both environments.
over-responsiveness and sensory-seeking responses showed no differences for some of the sensory modalities in the home environment.

The researchers concluded that under-responsiveness may be the most prominent and exclusive sensory symptom of children with ASD, with the school being the environment where sensory differences seem to be observed more.

Reference: Fernández-Andrés, M. I., Sanz-Cerverza, P., Salgado-Burgos, C., Tárraga-Mínguez, R., & Pastor-Cerezuela, G. (2018). Comparative study of sensory modulation vulnerabilities in children with and without ASD in family and school contexts. Journal of Occupational Therapy, Schools, & Early Intervention, 1-11.