Prevalence of Parent's Perceptions of Sensory Processing Disorders among 5-11 Year-Old Children in Tehran

Sensory processing in humans involves reception of a physical stimulus, transduction of the stimulus into a neural impulse, and perception, or, the conscious experience of sensation.These sensory disorders can negatively affect development and functional abilities in behavioral, emotional, motoric, and cognitive domains. The present study was designed to investigate the prevalence of parent's perceptions of sensory processing disorders among 5 to 11 year-old children in Tehran, Iran.

The current study was a descriptive and cross sectional study performed on 5 to 11 year-old children. Data collection instruments were a demographic and a sensory profile questionnaire. Data were analyzed using Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Mann Whitney Welch, and ANOVA tests.

In the present study, 2191 cases were evaluated in terms of sensory processing factors.According to the findings, morbidity from sensory processing disorder in boys is higher than that in girls. Also, the most common disorder was observed in sensory sensitivity factor and the lowest was related to fine movement and perception. The results of Mann Whitney showed that the medians of sensory sensitivity, emotional reaction, and oral sensory sensitive, inattention and destructibility, sensory sensitivity, and fine movements/perception were significantly different between males and females (P

Due to the impact of the disorder on the children's quality of life and their adverse effects on the children's personal and social life, screening school-aged children and making attempts to treat it is necessary.