The Relationship Between Sensory Reactivity Differences and Anxiety Subtypes in Autistic Children.
Sensory hypersensitivity in autistic kids points to phobia-type anxiety, while low reactivity predicts lower social anxiety.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team asked 3- to young learners autistic kids and their parents to fill out two checklists. One measured sensory reactivity: how loud sounds, bright lights, or touch felt. The other listed anxiety types like fear of dogs, social worry, or separation panic.
They then looked for patterns: which sensory style matched which kind of anxiety.
What they found
Kids who jumped at every sound or touch had more specific phobias and fear of injury. Kids who barely noticed sensory input had lower overall and social anxiety. Sensory seeking—spinning, crashing, sniffing—did not link to any anxiety type.
How this fits with other research
Adams et al. (2020) found a large share of autistic kids self-report anxiety, but adults often miss it at school. Keren’s work shows one reason: sensory hypersensitivity drives phobia-type anxiety, which can look like avoidance rather than worry.
Adams et al. (2020) also showed higher child anxiety drags down both child and parent quality of life. Keren adds that the sensory profile can flag which kids are at highest risk for the phobia-type anxiety that hurts daily life most.
Storch et al. (2012) tied symbolic play with restricted interests to anxiety. Keren shifts the lens from interests to sensory reactivity, giving you a second, easier-to-spot marker for anxiety risk.
Why it matters
If a child covers ears at every fire drill, screen for specific phobias and injury fears. If a child seems unfazed by noise, social anxiety is less likely. Use sensory checklists as a quick triage tool to decide who needs deeper anxiety assessment.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Autistic children are at greater risk of developing anxiety than their nonautistic peers. Sensory reactivity differences have been implicated as one of the risk factors. Specifically, sensory hyperreactivity has previously been linked to anxiety, including separation anxiety and specific phobia; however, minimal research has explored the influence of sensory hyporeactivity and seeking. Therefore, the present study examined the correlational relationship between sensory reactivity differences and anxiety subtypes in 41 autistic children aged between 3 and 14 years, using parent- and self-reported measures. We found positive correlations between sensory hyperreactivity and total anxiety, separation anxiety and physical injury fears. However, when controlling for autism traits, we found sensory hyperreactivity to be related to physical injury fears and specific phobia, and sensory hyporeactivity to be related to lower total and social anxiety. We found no significant relationships between sensory seeking and anxiety. These results indicate that sensory hyperreactivity and hyporeactivity might be implicated in specific anxiety symptomology. Our results also indicate minimal agreement between parent- and self-reported anxieties, which highlights the limitations of informant reports for anxiety and the pressing need for objective anxiety assessments for autistic children to be developed. Our findings have important implications for limiting the development of anxiety in autistic children and suggest that sensory reactivity differences should be considered when developing targeted interventions for certain anxiety disorders. Autism Res 2020, 13: 785-795. © 2019 The Authors. Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: The present study found that when considering autism traits, greater sensory hyperreactivity, such as being oversensitive to sounds, was related to elevated phobia-related symptoms and sensory hyporeactivity, such as being under-responsive to touch, was related to lower total and social anxieties. Sensory seeking, such as a fascination with lights, was not related to anxiety. Our results have important implications for targeted anxiety interventions for autistic children. However, due to minimal agreement between the parent- and child-reported scores, developing more objective measures of anxiety would be beneficial.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2020 · doi:10.1002/aur.2259