The findings of the present study suggest that young children with ADHD may be at increased risk of deficits in various sensory processing abilities, over and above the core symptoms of ADHD. Early identification and treatment of sensory processing deficits from a young age may extend our ability to support the successful performance of children with ADHD in meaningful and productive occupations.

There is strong indication that the SRQ can be used to diagnose adults with SMD.

Differential diagnosis between sensory modulation disorder (SMD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is often challenging, since these disorders occur at a high rate of co-morbidity and share several clinical characteristics. Preliminary studies providing evidence that these are distinct disorders have focused solely on body functions, using sophisticated laboratory measurements. Moreover, no studies have compared participation profiles of these populations. This study is the first to compare the profiles of these populations regarding both “body functions” (attention and sensation) and “participation,” using measures applicable for clinical use. The study included 19 children with ADHD without SMD and 19 with SMD without ADHD (diagnosed by both pediatric neurologists and occupational therapists), aged 6–9, and matched by age and gender. All children underwent a broad battery of evaluations: the Evaluation of Sensory Processing, Fabric Prickliness Test (FPT) and Von Frey Test to evaluate sensory processing, and Test of Everyday Attention to evaluate attention components. The Participation in Childhood Occupations Questionnaire was used to evaluate participation. Results support significant group differences in all sensory components, including pain intensity to suprathreshold stimuli and pain “after sensation,” as well as in tactile, vestibular, taste, and olfactory processing. No differences were found in attention components and participation. This study has both theoretical and clinical importance, inter alia, providing further evidence of two distinct disorders as well as indications of specific clinical instruments that might enable clinicians to implement differential diagnoses. In addition, results accord with other previous statements, which indicate that the clinical diagnosis of children with disabilities may not be a major factor in determining their participation profile.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between visual perception and visual-motor integration in 30 normal children compared to 30 clumsy children. Difficulty in visual perception, as assessed by the Test of Visual-Perceptual Skills, accounts for about half the variance in the clumsy children's performance in visual-motor integration, as assessed by the Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration. In contrast, the correlation between scores on these tests for normal control children was low and not significant. These results suggest that visual perception and visual-motor integration may be separate functions in normally developing children. When considering clumsy children, however, these functions cannot be considered as two independent skills.

The aim of this study was to provide a comprehensive profile of the sensory, motor, language, and intellectual functioning of a non-referred community sample of 49 preschool children with attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; 39 males, 10 females; mean age 4y 7mo [SD 7mo]; range 3y 10mo-6y) and 48 typically developing children (38 males, 10 females; mean age 4y 8mo [SD 6mo]; range 3y 11mo-6y) matched by age, sex, and maternal education who underwent a broad battery of neurodevelopmental tests. The results showed that the scores of the ADHD group were significantly lower than the comparison group on all measures. In addition, 23 (47%) of the children with ADHD had clinically significant co-occurring deficits in two or more areas. Logistic regression indicated that the only significant predictors of group classification were scores of verbal intelligence and motor and sensory functioning, accounting for 44.1% of the variance. These findings suggest that preschool children with ADHD have multiple developmental deficits over and above the core symptoms of ADHD and emphasize the importance of evaluating the sensorimotor functioning of preschool children with ADHD symptoms.