Loh Siew Yim, Ee Su Im, Marret Mary J
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Occupational therapy, Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Women and Children Hospital, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Int J Dev Disabil. 2021 Jul 16;69(2):226-237. doi: 10.1080/20473869.2021.1950484. eCollection 2023.
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 ( = 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 ( = 93) were at 68.8 percent, compared to 21.5 percent in the typical group ( = 95), and were significantly different ( <0.001). The differences in sensory-processing difficulties were significant ( <0.05) between groups, across all domains, except for movement sensitivity ( >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, <0.01), frequency (r = 0.22, <0.05) and enjoyment (r = 0.27, <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.
自闭症是一种在多种情境下社交沟通和社交互动持续存在缺陷的病症，并且，感觉加工困难可能会进一步影响儿童时期的活动参与，并阻碍他们的全面发展。本研究考察了自闭症儿童（6至10岁）以及年龄/性别匹配的正常儿童作为对照的感觉加工和儿童时期的活动参与情况。使用感觉加工量表（SSP）和儿童活动参与量表（PICO）从93名自闭症儿童的家长以及95名发育正常儿童的家长那里收集数据，这些家长是从医院、学校和护理中心招募而来的。本研究中自闭症组有74%（n = 72）的男性参与者（即男女比例为4:1），并且发现感觉加工困难与特定的儿童时期活动参与受限有关。自闭症儿童的活动参与度（在水平、频率和享受程度方面）低于正常儿童。自闭症儿童（n = 93）存在感觉加工困难的比例为68.8%，而正常组（n = 95）为21.5%，两者存在显著差异（p < 0.001）。除了运动敏感性（p > 0.28）外，各组之间在所有领域感觉加工困难的差异均具有显著性（p < 0.05）。听觉过滤是唯一与活动参与的所有三个维度都存在显著相关性的感觉加工困难[即困难程度（r = 0.36，p < 0.01）、频率（r = 0.22，p < 0.05）和享受程度（r = 0.27，p < 0.01）]。我们的研究结果突出表明，听觉过滤困难是关键的感觉加工困难，并且它显著降低了自闭症组儿童的活动参与度。随着关于自闭症评估的文献不断增多，有必要进行早期筛查，并让家长参与早期干预，以改善特定的感觉加工缺陷，同时还要关注孩子的优势，提供全面的支持性护理。
