Oral Sensory Issues with Feeding and Communication Skills in Autistic Children

ObjectivesOral sensory, communication, and feeding issues are frequently observed to co-occur in autistic children. The study attempted to explore the association between oral sensory deficits, feeding, and communication deficits in autistic children.MethodsBehavioral Pediatric Feeding Assessment Scale (BPFAS), Child Sensory Profile 2 (SP-2), and Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales Developmental Profile Infant/Toddler Checklist (CSBS-DP) were administered to forty autistic children in the age range of 2.5-7 years. The correlation among the three domains was determined using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient.ResultsA low negative correlation was found between SP-2 scores and CSBS-DP (r = -0.24, p = 0.13), indicating that the higher the oral sensory scores, the poorer the communication skills. SP-2 and BPFAS scores had a moderate positive correlation (r = 0.47, p = 0.002) i.e., higher scores in SP-2 were associated with higher scores in feeding, indicating that oral sensory issues were directly related to the feeding issues.ConclusionsThe overall findings indicated that the presence of oral sensory issues is associated with feeding and communication deficits in autistic children.Study RegistrationClinical Trial Registry of India CTRI/2020/07/02681