A Study of Behavioral and Autonomic Responses in Autistic Children with Sensory Processing Difficulty

This thesis proposed to apply the concepts of allostasis and self-regulation to redefining the difficulties encountered by children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in processing sensory stimulations. This thesis consisted of two phases of study. Phase 1 of the study validated the two major forms (Home and Main Classroom) of the Sensory Processing Measure–Hong Kong Chinese version (SPM– HKC) in 542 and in 325 Chinese, typically developing (TD) children, respectively. The internal consistency of the SPM–HKC was good. Four out of nine Home scales and eight out of nine Main Classroom scales had Cronbach's alpha values greater than or equal to .80. In addition, three Home scale and one Main Classroom scale had Cronbach's alpha values of between .70 and .80. The test–retest reliability of the SPM–HKC was good to excellent. The intraclass correlation coefficients of the Home and Main Classroom Forms scales ranged from .70 to .95 and .82 to .98, respectively. The discriminant validity of the SPM–HKC was excellent. For both the Home Form and the Main Classroom Form, the ASD group had significantly higher (more undesirable) scores (all p < .001) than their non-ASD peers. However, the correlation of behavior of the Hong Kong Chinese children toward sensory events across settings was found to be low or not statistically significant, demonstrating an