Research Spotlight

#sensory

A New Way to Understand Sensory Differences in Children

Many children respond to sensory information in ways that are different from what adults might expect. This can include responses to sounds, lights, smells, tastes, and touch. Sensory differences are especially common in children with autism, but they can also be seen in other developmental conditions.

A recent research study introduced a new parent questionnaire called the Sensory Response Questionnaire Phenotyper, or SRQP. The purpose of the study was to test whether this new questionnaire could describe children’s sensory behaviors in a more detailed way than some existing tools.

Why Did Researchers Do This Study?

The researchers wanted to solve a common problem in sensory assessment.

Many existing questionnaires can tell us that a child has sensory differences, but they may not fully explain what kind of sensory difference is happening.

The researchers wanted to better understand three things:

Which sense is involved?

This could be hearing, vision, smell, taste, or touch.

Is the child more responsive or less responsive than expected?

Some children react strongly to sensory input. Others may seem not to notice sensory input as much.

Does the strength of the sensation matter?

A child may respond one way to a mild sensation and another way to a strong sensation.

This last question was a major focus of the study. The researchers believed that the intensity of a sensation could be an important missing piece in understanding sensory behavior.

What Did the Researchers Create?

The researchers developed the SRQP, a 20-item survey completed by parents.

The questionnaire asks about sensory responses across five areas:

Hearing

Vision

Smell

Taste

Touch

For each sense, the SRQP looks at whether the child is over-responsive or under-responsive. It also separates responses to low-intensity sensations from responses to high-intensity sensations.

In simple terms, the SRQP does not just ask, “Does this child have sensory differences?” It asks, “What kind of sensory difference, in which sense, and under what level of intensity?”

Who Took Part in the Study?

The study included children ages 3 to 17.

After exclusions, the final analysis included:

219 typically developing children

52 children with autism

Parents completed the new SRQP and two established sensory questionnaires: the Short Sensory Profile and the Sensory Experiences Questionnaire. The researchers then compared the results to see how well the SRQP performed.

The study flow diagram on page 15 shows how participants were enrolled and how the final sample was selected.

What Did the Study Find?

The researchers found that the SRQP performed well as a new questionnaire.

Children with autism had higher SRQP scores than typically developing children, meaning they showed more atypical sensory responses. This finding was consistent with the results from the older sensory questionnaires used in the study.

The researchers also found that a score of 37 was the best cutoff in this study for identifying more atypical sensory responses. The chart on page 17 shows the analysis used to identify this cutoff.

What Was the Most Important Finding?

The most important finding was that sensory responses are not all-or-nothing.

A child’s response may depend on:

The specific sense involved

Whether the child is over-responsive or under-responsive

Whether the sensation is mild or strong

The study found that responses to low-intensity sensations did not always match responses to high-intensity sensations. For example, how a child responds to a mild sound, light, smell, taste, or touch may not predict how that same child responds to a stronger version of that sensation.

The graphs on page 21 show this pattern. They show that high-intensity and low-intensity responses were not always strongly related.

Why Does This Matter?

This research suggests that sensory behavior should be studied and understood in a more detailed way.

Instead of treating sensory differences as one broad category, the SRQP breaks sensory responses into smaller parts. This may help researchers and professionals better understand why children respond differently in different situations.

This is especially important for autism research because children with autism often show a wide range of sensory patterns. Two children may both have sensory differences, but the type, sense, and intensity of those differences may be very different.

What Are the Limits of the Study?

The study was an important first step, but it had limits.

The SRQP is based on parent report, which means it depends on what parents observe and how they interpret their child’s behavior. The researchers also noted that future studies should compare questionnaire results with direct sensory testing.

The study also did not include detailed measures such as IQ or autism severity, which may affect sensory patterns.

Bottom Line

This study introduced the SRQP as a new tool for understanding sensory responses in children.

The main message of the research is that sensory differences are more complex than a single label. A child’s response can depend on the sense involved, the type of response, and the strength of the sensation.

By including sensory intensity, the SRQP may help researchers and professionals develop a more complete picture of sensory behavior in children with autism and other developmental conditions.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12395464/pdf/nihms-2166875.pdf

Yee, C., Rather, E., Hoque, S., Lee, J., Marton, S., Roth, J., Oswald, F. L., Nobleza, K. J., Banerjee, A., Harris, H., & Lyons-Warren, A. M. (2025). Novel parent survey measures sensory behaviors incorporating sensory modality and stimulus intensity. Heliyon, 11(13), Article e43661. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2025.e43661