Status of Sensory Profile Score among Children with Autism in Selected Centers of Dhaka City
Abstract
Autism is a neurobiological disorder that affects the physical, social, and language skills of a person. A child with autism feels difficulty for processing, integrating, and responding to sensory stimuli. Current estimates have shown that 45% to 96 % of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder demonstrate sensory difficulties. As Autism is a worldwide burning issue, it becomes a highly prioritized and need concern of service providers in Bangladesh. The sensory deficit does not only hamper the normal development of a child, but it also hampers the learning process and functional independence. The purpose of this study was to find out the prevalence of sensory dysfunction among children with autism and recognize a common pattern of sensory dysfunction. This cross-sectional study design was chosen to carry out this research work. This study enrolled eighty children with autism and their parents by using the systematic sampling method. In this study, data were collected through the Short Sensory Profile (SSP) assessment tool which consists of 38-items in the questionnaire, and qualified graduate Occupational Therapists were directly involved in interviewing with parents as well as observing child responses to sensory-related activities of the children with autism from four selected autism centers in Dhaka, Bangladesh. All item analyses were conducted to identify items yielding or resulting in the highest reported sensory processing dysfunction among those children through using SSP and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.0 for data analysis. This study revealed that almost 78.25% of children with autism had significantly sensory processing dysfunction based on their sensory response with relevant activities. Under-responsive sensory seeking and auditory filtering were the least common problems among them. On the other hand, most of them (95%) were represented that they had definite to probable difference in sensory processing, including under-response or sensory seeking, auditory filtering, and tactile sensitivity. Besides, the result also shows that the definite difference of sensory processing among 64 children was within 100%; it means those children with autism suffered from the sensory difficulties and thus it drew a great impact on the children's Daily Living Activities (ADLs) as well as social interaction with others. Almost 95% of children with autism require intervention to overcome or normalize the problem. The result gives insight regarding types of sensory processing dysfunction to consider during diagnosis and ascertaining the treatment. So, early sensory problem identification is very important and thus will help to provide appropriate sensory input to minimize the maladaptive behavior and enhance to reach the normal range of adaptive behavior.
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