Sensory processing and its relationship to participation among childhood occupations in children with autism spectrum disorder: exploring the profile of differences

Autism is a condition manifested by persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts, and, sensory processing difficulties may further affect childhood-occupation and hinders their overall development. This study examines the sensory-processing and childhood participation of children with autism (6 to 10 years), and 'age/gender-matched typical children as control. The Sensory Processing (SSP) and the Participation of childhood-occupation (PICO) measures were used to collect data from 93 parents of children with autism and 95 parents of typically-developing' children, recruited from hospitals, school and care centres. This study had 74 percent (n = 72) male participants (i.e. 4:1 male to female ratio) in the autism group, and found sensory processing difficulties were associated with specific childhood-participation limitation. Children with autism had lower participation (across level, frequency and enjoyment) than the typical children. Sensory-processing' difficulties for the children with autism (n = 93) were at 68.8 percent, compared to 21.5 percent in the typical group (n = 95), and were significantly different (p < 0.001). The differences in sensory-processing difficulties were significant (p < 0.05) between groups, across all domains, except for movement sensitivity (p > 0.28). Auditory filtering was the sole sensory-processing difficulty with significant correlations with all three dimensions of participation [i.e. difficulty (r = 0.36, p < 0.01), frequency (r = 0.22, p < 0.05) and enjoyment (r = 0.27, p < 0.01)]. Our finding highlighted that auditory-filtering difficulties is a key sensory processing difficulty, and it significantly lower the childhood-participation in the autism group. Adding to a growing body of literature on assessment in autism, there is a need for early screening, and to engage parents in early intervention to improve specific sensory processing deficits but also to focus on the child's strengths, for a comprehensive supportive care.