Children born prematurely have atypical Sensory Profiles

Objective: To determine if children born prematurely exhibit atypical responses to normally occurring sensory stimuli, as measured by the Sensory Profile. Study design: This is a cross-sectional study of children born at ⩽32 weeks gestation, followed at 1 to 8 years of age. The Sensory Profile questionnaire was completed by each child′s primary caregiver. The overall Sensory Profile was considered atypical if any quadrant or section score was >2 s.d. from the mean of the Sensory Profile validation group. Bivariate analyses were performed to determine associations between risk factors for adverse neurodevelopment and overall atypical Sensory Profiles. A section or quadrant was considered atypical if its score was >2 s.d. from the mean. A test of proportions was used to compute observed versus expected scores for each section and quadrant (Sensory Profile scores were based on a normal distribution so one would expect approximately 95% of participants to score within 2 s.d. of the mean). Result: Of our 107 participants, 39% had an atypical score in at least one section or quadrant. No specific perinatal or neonatal risk factors were associated with atypical overall Sensory Profiles ( P ⩾0.05 for all). Children born prematurely were at risk of having atypical scores in the auditory, tactile and vestibular processing sections, and in the four Sensory Profile quadrants ( P