Sensory processing difficulties in school-age children born very preterm: An exploratory study

Background: Very preterm birth has a detrimental impact on the developing brain, including widespread white matter brain abnormalities that threaten efficient sensory processing. Yet, sensory processing difficulties in very preterm children are scarcely studied, especially at school age. Aims: To investigate somatosensory registration, multisensory integration and sensory modulation. Participants: 57 very preterm school-age children (mean age = 9.2 years) were compared to 56 gender and age matched full-term children. Methods: Group differences on somatosensory registration tasks (Registration of Light Touch, Sensory Discrimination of Touch, Position Sense, Graphestesia), a computerized multisensory integration task, and the parent-reported Sensory Profile were investigated using t-tests and Mann-Whitney U tests. Results: In comparison to full-term children, very preterm children are less accurate on somatosensory registration tasks, including Registration of Light Touch (d = 0.34), Position Sense (d = 0.31) and Graphestesia (d = 0.42) and show more sensory modulation difficulties (d = 0.41), including both behavioral hyporesponsivity (d = 0.52) and hyperresponsivity (d = 0.56) to sensory stimuli. Tactile discrimination and multi sensory integration efficiency were not affected in very preterm children. Aspects of sensory processing were only modestly related. Conclusion: Very preterm children show sensory processing difficulties regarding somatosensory registration and sensory modulation, and preserved multisensory (audio-visual) integration. Follow-up care for very preterm children should involve screening of sensory processing difficulties at least up to school age.