Brief report: sensory abnormalities as distinguishing symptoms of autism spectrum disorders in young children.
SAND gives BCBAs a fast, reliable way to spot DSM-5 sensory symptoms in young autistic children.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team built a new tool called SAND. It checks DSM-5 sensory symptoms in young kids with autism.
They watched the child and asked the parent questions. Then they tested if SAND could tell autism from typical development.
What they found
SAND worked well. It caught almost every child with autism and rarely flagged typical kids.
The mix of watching and asking gave clear, reliable scores.
How this fits with other research
Harrison et al. (2004) made a similar tool for adults five years earlier. Casey et al. (2009) shifted the same idea down to toddlers and preschoolers.
Green et al. (2016) later used the same DSM-5 lens on older kids. They still saw high rates of sensory issues, showing the pattern holds past early childhood.
Diemer et al. (2023) went further. They say SAND’s focus on reactivity is good but incomplete. They found many autistic kids also have hidden problems like poor balance and body awareness. Adding those checks gives a fuller picture.
Why it matters
You now have a quick, dual-method screener for the sensory side of DSM-5. Use SAND during intake to spot autism flags and write targeted goals. If a child scores high, also test balance and motor skills as Diemer et al. (2023) suggest. This combo keeps your assessment both fast and thorough.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Sensory reactivity is a new criterion for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). However, there is no consensus on how to reliably measure sensory reactivity, particularly in minimally verbal individuals. The current study is an initial validation of the Sensory Assessment for Neurodevelopmental Disorders (SAND), a novel clinician-administered observation and corresponding caregiver interview that captures sensory symptoms based on DSM-5 criteria for ASD. METHODS: Eighty children between the ages of 2 and 12 participated in this study; 44 children with ASD and 36 typically developing (TD) children. Sensory reactivity symptoms were measured using the SAND and the already validated Short Sensory Profile (SSP). Initial psychometric properties of the SAND were examined including reliability, validity, sensitivity and specificity. RESULTS: Children with ASD showed significantly more sensory reactivity symptoms compared to TD children across sensory domains (visual, tactile, and auditory) and within sensory subtypes (hyperreactivity, hyporeactivity and seeking). The SAND showed strong internal consistency, inter-rater reliability and test-retest reliability, high sensitivity (95.5%) and specificity (91.7%), and strong convergent validity with the SSP. SIGNIFICANCE: The SAND provides a novel method to characterize sensory reactivity symptoms based on DSM-5 criteria for ASD. This is the first known sensory assessment that combines a clinician-administered observation and caregiver interview to optimally capture sensory phenotypes characteristic of individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders. The SAND offers a beneficial new tool for both research and clinical purposes and has the potential to meaningfully enhance gold-standard assessment of ASD. Autism Res 2017, 10: 1133-1140. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2009 · doi:10.1007/s10803-009-0711-x