Measuring sensory reactivity in autism spectrum disorder: application and simplification of a clinician-administered sensory observation scale

Tavassoli, T. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7898-2994, Bellesheim, K., Siper, P. M., Wang, T., Halpern, D., Gorenstein, M., Grodberg, D., Kolevzon, A. and Buxbaum, J. D. (2016) Measuring sensory reactivity in autism spectrum disorder: application and simplification of a clinician-administered sensory observation scale. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 46 (1). pp. 287-293. ISSN 0162-3257 doi: 10.1007/s10803-015-2578-3

Abstract/Summary

Sensory reactivity is a new DSM-5 criterion for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The current study aims to validate a clinician-administered sensory observation in ASD, the Sensory Processing Scale Assessment (SPS). The SPS and the Short Sensory Profile (SSP) parent-report were used to measure sensory reactivity in children with ASD (n = 35) and typically developing children (n = 27). Sixty-five percent of children with ASD displayed sensory reactivity symptoms on the SPS and 81.1 % on the SSP. SPS scores significantly predicted SSP scores. We next identified the five SPS tasks that best differentiated groups. Our results indicate that a combination of parent-report and at least the five most differentiating observational tasks may be most sensitive in identifying the presence of sensory reactivity issues.