Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry
Sec. Autism and Other Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Volume 3 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frcha.2024.1411445
This article is part of the Research Topic World Autism Awareness Day 2024 View all 7 articles

Sensory processing associated with subcategories of restricted and repetitive behaviors in Japanese children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder

Provisionally accepted
Haruka Noda Haruka Noda 1,2*Naoto Yoneda Naoto Yoneda 1,3Ken Kamogawa Ken Kamogawa 4Goro Tanaka Goro Tanaka 1Masakazu Ide Masakazu Ide 5Ryoichiro Iwanaga Ryoichiro Iwanaga 1
  • 1 Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan
  • 2 LITALICO Inc, Tokyo, Japan
  • 3 Other, Saga, Japan
  • 4 Other, Nagasaki, Japan
  • 5 National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities, Tokorozawa, Saitama, Japan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Restricted and repetitive behavior (RRB) is a core symptom of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The structure of RRB subcategories and their relationship with atypical sensory processing in Japan are not well understood. This study examined subcategories of the RRB in Japanese children with ASD and explored their relationship with sensory processing.Methods: A total of 103 children and adolescents with ASD participated in this study, with more than 70% having a co-occurring intellectual disability. First, exploratory factor analysis of the RRB items of the Social Responsiveness Scale second edition (SRS-2) was conducted to identify RRB subcategories. Second, Spearman correlation and multiple regression analysis were run to examine relationships between the RRB subcategories of SRS-2 and subsections of the Short Sensory Profile.Results: Exploratory factor analysis indicated a two factors solution; repetitive sensory and motor behavior and insistence on sameness. Multiple regression analysis suggested that Movement Sensitivity and Auditory Filtering were associated with insistence on sameness. Furthermore, Underresponsive/Seeks Sensation, Visual/Auditory Sensitivity, and diagnosis of intellectual disabilities were associated with repetitive sensory and motor behavior.Conclusions: Findings indicate that RRB subcategories are differently related to sensory processing patterns in children with ASD. These results suggested that RRB subcategories are beneficial to consider the relationship between RRB and sensory processing.

    Keywords: autism, ASD, sensory, restricted and repetitive behavior, RRB

    Received: 03 Apr 2024; Accepted: 10 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Noda, Yoneda, Kamogawa, Tanaka, Ide and Iwanaga. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Haruka Noda, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.