2 - (SYM 3) Subjective Sensory Sensitivity in Autistic Adolescents and Adults

Background: In Germany, sensory sensitivity, in autistic and neurotypical individuals, is not accommodated in schools, though these difficulties are described as leading to distraction and functional impairment in following, learning from, and participating in classes. To assess the magnitude and likely impact of addressing  this issue, we asked whether modifiable sensory features are associated with functional impairment for German children, and retrospectively for German adults, remembering their time in school.
 

Methods: A unique non-linguistic sensory challenge assessment for 25 sensory domains was created in a series of pilot studies (N >700) and administered to German children and adolescents (N >3000), and retrospectively, adults (N >3000). Each item assessed the level of functional impairment associated with the domain on five-point scales. Items were subjected to psychometric evaluation, descriptive statistics, comparisons between autistic and non-autistic individuals, and a variety of clustering techniques.

  Results: Items showed a high level of reliability (Chronbach’s alpha > 0.7 for all samples). Some domains were rated as impairing across the population (e.g., flashing lights),  and autistic and non-autistic individuals showed similar patterns in ratings - i.e. situations that are problematic for autistic individuals are also problematic for non-autistic individuals, across both child and adult samples. That said, autistic individuals reported greater overall functional impairment by sensory domains than non-autistic individuals in both child and adult samples. In the child/adolescent sample, a factor structure indicated distinct domains of sensory impairment. In the adult sample, a single factor solution was revealed across many analytic techniques, suggesting that adults primarily recalled varying in their overall level of sensory sensitivity, with up to ⅓ of autistic individuals endorsing severe impairment by stimuli across many sensory domains. 
  Conclusions: Data suggest that there are many often neglected but easily identifiable and modifiable domains which likely contribute to sensory impairment in autism as well as the general population. Attention to addressing modifiable sensory features through measures such as the developed barriers questionnaire could thus improve performance in schools for non-autistic and a larger number of autistic individuals, and decrease escalations.