Faculty

Psychology

Supervisor Name

Ryan Stevenson

Keywords

Sensory Processing, Sensory Phenotypes, Cluster Analysis, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Social Communication, Restrictive and Repetitive Behaviours, ADHD Traits, OCD Traits.

Description

Autistic children and children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often experience sensory processing difficulties, which are highly heterogeneous. Researchers have identified sensory phenotypes that co-occur within autistic individuals. However, sensory phenotypes have not been examined in children with ADHD. The aim of this research is to identify whether these sensory phenotypes exist in children with ADHD, and whether these phenotypes are similar to those observed in autism. A secondary aim of this study is to determine whether these sensory phenotypes are related to autism, ADHD, and obsessive-compulsive (OCD) traits. Short Sensory Profile data from 495 autistic children and 461 children with ADHD were subjected to a K-means cluster analysis to determine whether meaningful sensory phenotypes could be modelled. Follow up ANOVAs were used to compare autism, ADHD, and OCD traits across the resultant phenotypes. Overall, autistic children and children with ADHD demonstrated highly similar patterns of sensory phenotypes. Autism, ADHD, and OCD traits differed across the five phenotypes (ps < .001), but these patterns were very similar across the diagnostic groups. Although highly heterogeneous, sensory processing difficulties in both autistic children and children with ADHD can be classified into one of five sensory phenotypes. These sensory phenotypes help to parse the heterogeneity in sensory processing and help to explain variance in behavioural difficulties often observed in these diagnostic groups. Further, these results suggest that transdiagnostic etiologies may underlie sensory difficulties in these groups.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all the families that participated in the POND Network which supported this research, and Dr. Ryan Stevenson and Dr. Nikki Scheerer for the advice, encouragement, and guidance throughout this project.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Document Type

Poster

Event Website

https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/usri/usri2021/researchoutputshowcase/

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Exploring Sensory Phenotypes in Autistic Children and Children with ADHD

Autistic children and children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often experience sensory processing difficulties, which are highly heterogeneous. Researchers have identified sensory phenotypes that co-occur within autistic individuals. However, sensory phenotypes have not been examined in children with ADHD. The aim of this research is to identify whether these sensory phenotypes exist in children with ADHD, and whether these phenotypes are similar to those observed in autism. A secondary aim of this study is to determine whether these sensory phenotypes are related to autism, ADHD, and obsessive-compulsive (OCD) traits. Short Sensory Profile data from 495 autistic children and 461 children with ADHD were subjected to a K-means cluster analysis to determine whether meaningful sensory phenotypes could be modelled. Follow up ANOVAs were used to compare autism, ADHD, and OCD traits across the resultant phenotypes. Overall, autistic children and children with ADHD demonstrated highly similar patterns of sensory phenotypes. Autism, ADHD, and OCD traits differed across the five phenotypes (ps < .001), but these patterns were very similar across the diagnostic groups. Although highly heterogeneous, sensory processing difficulties in both autistic children and children with ADHD can be classified into one of five sensory phenotypes. These sensory phenotypes help to parse the heterogeneity in sensory processing and help to explain variance in behavioural difficulties often observed in these diagnostic groups. Further, these results suggest that transdiagnostic etiologies may underlie sensory difficulties in these groups.

https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/usri/usri2021/researchoutputshowcase/213

 

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