Sensory Processing Abnormalities in School-Age Children With Neurodevelopmental Disorders Are Associated With the Range of Learning Difficulties

There is pervasive evidence that problems in sensory processing occur across a range of neurodevelopmental disorders. The present study compared the sensory profile of typically developing (TD) children with those of children with learning disorders (LD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and with developmental language disorder (DLD), and investigated the association between the child's sensory profile and reading and maths learning difficulties. Seventy-four parents of children aged between 8 and 10 years old participated, completing the Colorado Learning Difficulties Questionnaire (CLDQ) and the Child Sensory Processing Profile (CSP-2) assessments of their child's performance on literacy/mathematics and sensory processing, respectively. There was strong evidence of abnormal sensory processing across the range of learning disorders and across all four 'quadrants' of the CSP-2. The children with ASD, ADHD, and DLD had major abnormalities. In contrast, children with LD showed significant but more modest differences. There was a significant association between the sensory profile and the mathematics component of the CLDQ. The findings highlight shared abnormalities in sensory processing across the range of developmental disorders and have substantial theoretical and applied implications.