The impact of sensory processing on executive and cognitive functions in children with autism spectrum disorder in the school context.

Gemma and her team tested 52 autistic kids and 52 same-age classmates in Italy. All kids were 8-11 years and attended regular public schools.

They gave three short tests: a stop-signal game for inhibitory control, a listen-for-beeps task for auditory attention, and a repeat-the-words game for verbal short-term memory. Parents also filled out a sensory checklist about noises, lights, and touch.

Autistic children scored worse on every test. They hit the stop button later, missed more beeps, and repeated fewer words correctly.

The bigger the sensory problems, the worse the scores. A child who covers his ears in the cafeteria, for example, was likely to miss twice as many beeps during the listening task.

Luckasson et al. (2017) saw no extra visual interference in autistic kids. Gemma’s group did find auditory and executive gaps. The difference is sense mode: visual clutter may not disturb them, but background noise clearly does.

Bachrach et al. (2026) show that schools often place autistic preschoolers by IQ and irritability. Gemma adds sensory processing as another must-measure piece. Ignoring it could under-estimate the support a child needs in a noisy classroom.

Némorin et al. (2025) split ASD into four subtypes at diagnosis. Gemma’s results say, within any subtype, always check sensory scores—they predict real-time attention and memory performance.

Before you write a BIP, add a quick sensory profile. If scores are high, build in noise-reducing headphones, seat the child away from the pencil sharpener, and use visual cues to support verbal instructions. These cheap tweaks can save executive bandwidth for learning.