Children (Aug 2023)

Exploring the Prognosis: A Longitudinal Follow-Up Study of Children with Sensory Processing Challenges 8–32 Years Later

  • Teresa A. May-Benson,
  • Olivia Easterbrooks-Dick,
  • Alison Teasdale

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/children10091474
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 9
p. 1474

Abstract

Read online

Sensory integration and processing challenges have been long recognized in children and, more recently, in adults. To understand the long-term prognosis of these challenges, more research is needed on what children with sensory integration and processing challenges look like as adults. Using the Adult/Adolescent Sensory History, researchers followed up with 102 adults who had known sensory integration and processing challenges as children to examine the following questions: What is the current sensory processing status of adults who received sensory-integration-based occupational therapy services as children? And how has the sensory processing status of adults who received sensory-integration-based services changed since childhood? This study compared performance on sensory processing measures completed as children and as adults for a follow-up group of adults. The results revealed that the severity of sensory integration and processing challenges experienced by the follow-up group decreased from childhood, with 51% of the follow-up group now scoring in the “typical” range of sensory processing. Our findings suggest that those children with sensory integration and processing challenges who are recognized and seek occupational therapy services using an ASI approach are likely to have a good long-term prognosis regarding the severity of their sensory processing functioning.

Keywords