Assessment of Sensory Processing and Executive Functions in Childhood: Development, Reliability, and Validity of the EPYFEI

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the psychometric properties of the “Assessment of Sensory Processing and Executive Functions in Childhood” (EPYFEI), a questionnaire designed to assess the sensory processing and executive functions of children aged between 3 and 11 years. The EPYFEI was completed by a sample of 1,732 parents of children aged between 3 and 11 years who lived in Spain. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted and showed five main factors: (1) executive attention, working memory, and initiation of actions; (2) general sensory processing; (3) emotional and behavioral self-regulation; (4) supervision, correction of actions, and problem solving; and (5) inhibitory. The reliability of the analysis was high both for the whole questionnaire and for the factors it is composed of. Results provide evidence of the potential usefulness of the EPYFEI in clinical contexts for the early detection of neurodevelopmental disorders, in which there may be a deficit of executive functions and sensory processing.

Assessment of Sensory Processing and Executive Functions at the School: Development, Reliability, and Validity of EPYFEI-Escolar

“…The EPYFEI-Escolar questionnaire and each of its factors showed good construct validity. Similarly, in a previous work with EPYFEI (51), the factor analysis confirmed two basic executive functions: "cold" executive functions, as shown by factors 1 and 2, and "hot" executive functions, related to factors 3 and 5. In addition, the interest of sensory processing (factor 4) was established.…”

“…Executive functions consist of both cognitive and emotional components, and they are fundamental for the regulation of goal-targeted behavior (45,50). Thus, they can be understood as underlying processes required for the effective performance of ADLs (51,52), including self-directed, complex and nonroutine activities in varied situations and environments (44). Therefore, further research is necessary in the field of executive functions and their influence on daily activities, highlighting the need for occupational therapists to design assessment tools for executive functions and intervention protocols, carrying out interventions based on specific evaluations that analyze the real daily performance (44).…”

“…However, the brain works as a whole in terms of sensory and cognitive processing, as recent studies of the human connectome show (63)(64)(65). Despite on this, and for the knowledge of the authors, there is only an instrument, developed for children aged between 3 and 11 years that assesses their participation in the different ADLs from the parents' perspective, called EPYFEI (51). This questionnaire is composed by five processes underlying the performance of ADLs: (1) attention control, working memory, and initiation of actions; (2) sensory processing; (3) emotional and behavioral self-regulation; (4) supervision, action corrections, and problemsolving; (5) inhibitory control.…”

Impact of a sensory activity schedule intervention on cognitive strategy use in autistic students: A school-based pilot study

“…SAS may have provided the 'just right' amount of sensory and motor input at the exact moment in performance time for optimum use of higher-order executive functions measured by items in the plan quadrant. This hypothesis is supported by research that has investigated potential links between executive functions and sensory processing and suggests that inhibitory control and attention at an executive level play an important role in the regulation of sensory processing as a latent factor (Romero-Ayuso et al, 2018).…”

Self-Regulation in Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders “SR-MRehab: Un Colegio Emocionante”: A Protocol Study

“…The assessment will be conducted in the first weeks of December 2020, divided into three blocks. Firstly, the EQ-i:YV questionnaire [42] and the Clock and Affect Recognition subtests of NEPSY-II [43] will be administered to the participants; separately, the teachers and parents will be asked to complete the EPYFEI-Escolar [45] and EPYFEI [46] questionnaires, respectively, which they will have to fill in and give back within the next week. Then, the participants will complete the Design Fluency and Theory of Mind subtests of NEPSY-II.…”