Background: Some children may encounter difficulties in processing sensory stimuli, which may affect their ability to participate in activities of daily living. Self-regulation abilities may also affect children on how to process different sensory experiences. The Sensory Processing and Self-Regulation Checklist (SPSRC) was developed as a single, parent-reported instrument for the examination of sensory processing and self-regulation difficulties in children.
Aims: This study is aimed at evaluating the psychometric properties of the SPSRC and examine the patterns of self-regulation and sensory processing in children with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Methods and procedures: The contents of the SPSRC were validated by a group of experts, and a field test was subsequently conducted to examine the reliability and validity of this instrument in a sample of 997 typically developing children and 78 children with ASD.
Outcomes and results: The results of the validation and field test analyses suggest that the SPSRC exhibits high internal consistency, good intrarater reliability, and a valid ability to measure and discriminate sensory processing and self-regulation in children aged 3-8 years with and without ASD.
Conclusions and implications: The current results supported the reliability and validity of SPSRC to assess a child's sensory processing and self-regulation performance in activities of daily living. The study findings warrant further investigation to compare the performance of the SPSRC with laboratory-based tests, as this would better elucidate sensory responsivity in children with sensory modulation disorders from both clinical and research perspectives.
Copyright © 2019 Cynthia Y. Y. Lai et al.