Sensory abnormalities in autism. A brief report.
Expect sensory issues in toddlers with autism—start every assessment by asking about pain and hearing quirks.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Klintwall et al. (2011) asked parents of 208 toddlers and preschoolers with autism about everyday sensory quirks. They wanted to know which senses hurt, helped, or just felt weird. The team used a short parent interview, not lab gear. They also checked if kids who talked more or had higher IQs had fewer sensory issues.
What they found
Most kids had sensory problems. Pain and hearing issues came up the most. Language level and IQ did not change the results. If a child had autism, sensory trouble was expected, not rare.
How this fits with other research
Schneider et al. (2006) saw the same wide sensory problems in older kids and adults. Their lab tests matched these parent stories. Germani et al. (2014) pushed the timeline earlier: at 24 months, high-risk babies who later got an ASD diagnosis already showed auditory and low-registration red flags. The 2011 toddler data sit right in the middle, linking the baby markers to the older-kid findings.
Moore (2015) warns us not to trust the “autistic kids don’t feel pain” myth. Parent reports in Klintwall et al. (2011) flagged pain as the top issue, but J’s review shows medical and lab data reveal normal or even heightened pain responses. The papers agree pain is common; they differ on how it feels—parents see less reaction, experiments show more.
MacFarland et al. (2025) later showed sensory sensitivity predicts autism traits even after removing ADHD symptoms. Klintwall et al. (2011) set the stage by showing sensory issues are core, not side, features in the youngest kids.
Why it matters
Screen pain and hearing first in every toddler autism assessment. If parents say their child never cries after a bump, still ask about noise cover-ups or odd reactions to light touch. Use the baby data from Germani et al. (2014) to watch 24-month-olds closely. Remember that teacher reports may show more issues than home reports once the child starts school. Treat sensory problems as part of the autism profile, not as extra clutter.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add two quick parent questions to your intake: “Does loud noise seem to hurt your child?” and “Does your child react less than expected to pain?”
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Sensory abnormalities were assessed in a population-based group of 208 20-54-month-old children, diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and referred to a specialized habilitation centre for early intervention. The children were subgrouped based upon degree of autistic symptoms and cognitive level by a research team at the centre. Parents were interviewed systematically about any abnormal sensory reactions in the child. In the whole group, pain and hearing were the most commonly affected modalities. Children in the most typical autism subgroup (nuclear autism with no learning disability) had the highest number of affected modalities. The children who were classified in an "autistic features" subgroup had the lowest number of affected modalities. There were no group differences in number of affected sensory modalities between groups of different cognitive levels or level of expressive speech. The findings provide support for the notion that sensory abnormality is very common in young children with autism. This symptom has been proposed for inclusion among the diagnostic criteria for ASD in the upcoming DSM-V.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2011 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2010.10.021