Despite the high prevalence of sensory processing difficulties in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), little research has focused on the sex differences in sensory processing. Furthermore, there is a lack of knowledge on the female-specific symptoms of ASD, contributing to later referral, diagnosis and intervention. In this study, we examined the sex differences in sensory processing symptoms in large cohorts of ASD children (N = 168; 26 females, 142 males) and typically developing (TD) children (N = 439; 209 females, 230 males). For this, we translated the sensory processing measure (SPM) and SPM – Preschool (SPM-P) Home Forms to French. The SPM/SPM-P are parent/caregiver questionnaires that assess typical behavioral responses to sensory stimuli. Overall, our results showed that the magnitude of the differences in sensory processing between males and females is larger in ASD children relative to TD children, with females showing more severe symptoms in Hearing, as well as Balance and Motion subscales. Additionally, linear discriminant analysis showed that the SPM/SPM-P are good at discriminating TD children from ASD, children with higher accuracy rates for females than for males. These findings are discussed in light of the heterogeneity of sensory processing difficulties present in ASD. Overall, our results suggest that there seem to be female-specific profiles in sensory processing difficulties in ASD. Implications of findings concerning sex differences in sensory processing and their potential for improving identification and diagnosis of ASD females are discussed.

中文翻译：

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自闭症谱系障碍儿童感觉加工的性别差异

尽管自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 儿童的感觉加工困难普遍存在，但很少有研究关注感觉加工的性别差异。此外，缺乏对 ASD 女性特异性症状的了解，这有助于后来的转诊、诊断和干预。在这项研究中，我们检查了大型 ASD 儿童（N =  168；26 名女性，142 名男性）和正常发育（TD）儿童（N = 439; 209 名女性，230 名男性）。为此，我们将感官处理测量 (SPM) 和 SPM – Preschool (SPM-P) 家庭表格翻译成法语。SPM/SPM-P 是父母/照顾者问卷，用于评估对感觉刺激的典型行为反应。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，相对于 TD 儿童，ASD 儿童的男性和女性感觉处理差异的幅度更大，女性在听力、平衡和运动分量表中表现出更严重的症状。此外，线性判别分析表明，SPM/SPM-P 擅长区分 TD 儿童和 ASD，女性儿童的准确率高于男性。鉴于 ASD 中存在的感觉处理困难的异质性，讨论了这些发现。全面的，我们的研究结果表明，在 ASD 的感觉处理困难中似乎存在女性特有的特征。讨论了有关感觉处理中性别差异的发现的含义及其改进 ASD 女性识别和诊断的潜力。