Exploring prevalence of sensory patterns among children with developmental disabilities: a cross-sectional study

Background: Developmental disabilities prevalence appears to be significant worldwide. Sensory sensitivity has also been associated with developmental disabilities. To find prevalence of sensory sensitivity and to seek an association of sensory sensitivity among developmentally disabled children with selected factors. Methods: The study used a descriptive survey research design including 150 children aged 6-11 years diagnosed with ASD, ADHD, intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, specific language disability and down syndrome attending child developmental centre of Safdarjung hospital, selected via purposive sampling technique. Data collected through structured interviews, anthropometric measurements, and a standardized tool i.e. Parent completed Glasgow Sensory Questionnaire. Results: Mean sensory sensitivity in terms of total, hyper and hypo sensitivity were higher in children with ASD, ADHD and Intellectual Disability. Similarly mean of vestibular, auditory, tactile and proprioception sensory sensitivity subscales were observed higher among children with ASD, ADHD and intellectual disability. The findings also showed that p values for type of family (p=0.033), socio-economic status (p=0.010), maternal occupation (p=0.022), nutritional status (p=0.004), diagnosis of child (p=0.000) were found to be statistically significant at 0.05 level of significance to seek the association between sensory sensitivity and selected variables. Conclusions: Aberrant sensory sensitivity may play an important role among children with developmental disabilities.