Performance of typical children on the Sensory Profile: an item analysis.

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study was to obtain data about typical children on the 99-item Sensory Profile, a newly developed tool derived from sensory history items reported in the literature and designed to assess children's responses to commonly occurring sensory events.

METHOD

Parents of 64 typical children 3 to 10 years of age completed the Sensory Profile; parents used a five-point Likert scale to report the percentage of time their children engaged in each behavior. Researchers then analyzed these percentages to determine differences by age and gender.

RESULTS

Sixty-seven of the items on the Sensory Profile were found to be uncommon for these typical children. On further analysis with a multivariate analysis of variance and appropriate follow-up procedures, one item was more common for younger children, and four items were more common for girls.

CONCLUSION

Two thirds of the items on the Sensory Profile were uncommon for typical children and thus may contribute useful information about children with disabilities who respond to these sensory events.