Relationship Between Sensory Deficits and Externalizing Behaviors in an Urban, Latino Preschool Population

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between sensory deficits and externalizing behavior problems in preschool children. Parents of 179 urban, Latino preschool children completed two parent-report measures, the Short Sensory Profile (SSP), as a checklist for sensory symptoms, and the Achenbach Checklist for Ages 1-5 (CBCL/1-5) to assess externalizing behavior problems. Measures were available in Spanish or English depending on the parent's preference. Correlations were performed between the total sensory deficits scale of the SSP and the Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and Externalizing Problems scales of the CBCL. Significant correlations were found between increasing levels of sensory deficits and increasing externalizing behavior problems. Correlations were also examined in subcategories of age, gender and socioeconomic status. Five-year-old children showed stronger correlations than 4-year-old children, while males showed stronger correlations than females, and the highest correlations were found in children of families reporting between $18,001 and $24,000 per year annual income. Findings suggest that Latino preschool children with externalizing behavior problems may suffer from delays in sensory development that impact their behavior. Clinical interventions should promote strategies that either reduce or increase environmental stimuli in accordance with the sensory abilities of the individual child.

Validating Regulatory Sensory Processing Disorders Using the Sensory Profile and Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL 1½–5)

“…The presence of deficits in sensory modulation deficits in the group with OD3R (even in a lesser extent than in RSPD group) was also supported by other studies; Specifically sensory modulations deficits showed correlations with Depression, Generalized Anxiety (Gouze et al 2009) and externalizing problems in preschool children (Gunn et al 2009). Further research is necessary to analyze the prevalence of sensory modulation deficits in patient samples with different diagnoses within the DC:0-3R system.…”

“…The lack of significant differences in other sensory areas in the current study may be related to sample size and/or the sample origin. Other studies (Gunn et al 2009;McIntosh et al 1999a, b) also observed significant differences in other sensory areas; however, the children who composed the control groups in these studies were not from a clinical sample. Regarding the differences in sensory patterns between the groups of the present study, toddlers in the RSPD group were approximately twice as likely to exhibit extreme scores in the low registration pattern as those in the OD3R group.…”

Re-examining the Epidemiology of Sensory Regulation Dysfunction and Comorbid Psychopathology

“…Gunn (2008) replicated the SSP in a primarily Hispanic (78.9%) sample from lower income brackets. Using the SSP cut-off scores, Gunn (2008) identified a probable difference in sensory regulation in 22% and a definite difference in sensory regulation in 28.6% of the participants in his study, rates 1.6 and 14.3 times higher, respectively, than those in Dunn's (1999) White, non-Hispanic sample.…”

A Preliminary Study to Development of an Assessment to Measure Sensory Processing of Children, ‘Sensory Processing Scale for Children (SPS-C)’

“…Profile: SSP) (McIntosh, Miller, Shyu, & Dunn, 1999) 이 가장 일반적으로 사용되고 있다 (Gouze, Hopkins, LeBailly, & Lavigne, 2009;Gunn et al, 2009) (Teresi, Cross, & Golden, 1989).…”