The Dutch Glasgow Sensory Questionnaire: Psychometric properties of an autism-specific sensory sensitivity measure.
The Dutch GSQ is ready for clinic use to capture sensory over- and under-reactions in autistic adults.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team translated the Glasgow Sensory Questionnaire into Dutch. They gave it to autistic adults and to adults without autism. They checked if scores stayed the same when people took it again later.
They also asked if the questions really measure sensory sensitivity and not something else.
What they found
The Dutch GSQ passed every test. It is reliable, valid, and stable.
Two out of three autistic adults scored above the top five percent of non-autistic adults. That shows strong sensory differences.
How this fits with other research
Ward et al. (2023) did the same job in China. They also found the GSQ works well, but they tested only non-autistic adults. Their study is a mirror image that backs up the Dutch results.
Sapey-Triomphe et al. (2023) went further. They added lab tests and brain measures. Self-report scores were high, yet skin and brain tests looked normal. Their work extends the Dutch paper by showing questionnaires and biology do not always line up.
Fründt et al. (2017) looked for simple threshold gaps between autistic and non-autistic adults. They found almost none. This seems to clash with the high GSQ scores, but the GSQ asks about everyday life, not lab thresholds. The two studies measure different things, so both can be true.
Why it matters
You now have a free, quick tool that autistic adults can fill out in minutes. Use it to start talks about noise, light, or touch issues. Pair it with interviews or direct tests to see the full picture. Add the GSQ to your intake packet and track changes after sensory breaks or accommodations.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Sensory sensitivity is common in autistic people and since the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.), hypo- and hyper-responsiveness to sensory stimuli are part of one of the criteria domains for an autism spectrum disorder classification. For scientific research and the clinical practice, one needs reliable and valid questionnaires that measure sensory sensitivity and can distinguish between hypo- and hyper-responsiveness. We translated the Glasgow Sensory Questionnaire into Dutch. The aim was to examine the psychometric properties and the clinical use of the Dutch Glasgow Sensory Questionnaire in 78 autistic and 68 typically developing adults (18-45 years; IQ > 70). Just like the original Glasgow Sensory Questionnaire, the Dutch Glasgow Sensory Questionnaire is a reliable and valid questionnaire. The Dutch Glasgow Sensory Questionnaire had reliable hypo- and hyper-responsiveness subscales, reasonable to good modality subscales and was stable over time. Moreover, using the 95th percentile of the typically developing group as cut-off, we showed that two thirds of the autistic adults had heightened sensory sensitivity. We also showed that hypo- and hyper-responsiveness do co-exist in both autistic and typically developing adults. In sum, we conclude that the Dutch Glasgow Sensory Questionnaire is suitable to be used in scientific research as well as in the clinical practice.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2019 · doi:10.1177/1362361318788065