Sensory Abnormality and Quantitative Autism Traits in Children With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder in an Epidemiological Population

K. Jussila,H. Ebeling,M.-L. Mattila,M. Junttila,M. Kielinen,I. Moilanen,L. Joskitt

doi:10.1007/s10803-019-04237-0

Abstract

Sensory abnormalities (SAs) are recognized features in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and a relationship between SAs and ASD traits is also suggested in general population. Our aims were to estimate the prevalence of SAs in three different settings, and to study the association between SAs and quantitative autism traits (QAT) using the Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire (ASSQ) and a parental questionnaire. In an epidemiological population of 8-year-old children (n = 4397), the prevalence of SAs was 8.3%, in an ASD sample (n = 28), 53.6%, and in a non-ASD sample (n = 4369), 8.0%, respectively. Tactile and auditory hypersensitivity predicted an ASD diagnosis. The ASSQ was able to differentiate children with and without SA. In conclusion, QAT level and SAs were associated in all study samples.

Highlights

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a pervasive neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by deficits in two main domains: limitations in social communication and interaction, and stereotyped, repetitive patterns of behavior (APA 2013)
Since the Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire (ASSQ) has been validated for children with a full-scale intelligence quotient (FSIQ) to or above 50 (Ehlers et al 1999), only children with normal cognitive level or mild mental retardation were included in the study sample
Effect size describes the proportion of variability explained by a given variable of the variance remaining after excluding variance explained by other predictors; it quantifies the effect of an independent variable to the variation in the dependent variable, describing the observed effect instead of merely identifying a statistical significance (Fritz et al 2012)

Summary

Introduction

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a pervasive neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by deficits in two main domains: limitations in social communication and interaction, and stereotyped, repetitive patterns of behavior (APA 2013). Repetitive behavior consists of five subcategories: repetitive sensory-motor/stereotypic behaviors, ritualistic/ insistence on sameness behaviors, compulsive behavior, restricted/circumscribed interests and self-injurious behaviors (Bishop et al 2013). These repetitive behaviors are more likely among children with ASD who experience sensory abnormalities (SAs) (Chen et al 2009; Gabriels et al 2008), and they might function as a soothing or stimulating mechanism for children with sensory dysfunction (Leekam et al 2011). These abnormalities seem to persist across age: sensory symptoms of toddlers have been found to last through adulthood (Harrison and Hare 2004; Leekam et al 2007; Minshew and Hobson 2008; Rogers et al 2003)

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