Sensory profile of children with Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD)

Abstract

Purpose: To analyze the sensory profile of children with auditory sensory processing disorder according to the Child Sensory Profile 2 and to verify potential associations between central auditory processing and sensory processing. Methods: Sixty children from two public schools in the city of João Pessoa, state of Paraíba, were evaluated. All children had their cognitive skills tested and their socioeconomic and demographic information collected. The children’s hearing, central auditory processing, and sensory processing were evaluated. SPSS Statistics version 25.0 was used for data analysis and the significant value adopted was 0.05. Descriptive analysis was performed using the central tendency method. The similarities among the test variables were measured by Student’s t-test and Mann-Whitney U test. The effect size (ES) between the groups was measured by Cohen’s d or Rosenthal’s r coefficient. Results: The average age of children with CAPD was 8.4 years, and their families had lower levels of income and education when compared to those without the disorder. Children with CAPD present more sensory differences than their peers with normative CAP. The Child Sensory Processing 2 results didn’t show any statistic associations with central auditory processing, and the effect size was of moderate magnitude for the visual system. Conclusion: Children with CAPD have more sensory differences than their peers according to the normative results of the Child Sensory Profile 2. An association between sensory and central auditory processing was not observed, except for the visual system.