Sensory sensitivities in children are found not only across a range of childhood disorders, but also within the general population. The current exploratory study examines the reliability and validity of a novel parent-report measure which assesses sensory-sensitivities in both typically developing and non-typically developing children. This 42-item Parent-completed Glasgow Sensory Questionnaire (GSQ-P) has been adapted by us from an existing adult tool (Glasgow Sensory Questionnaire), and measures children’s hyper-sensitivities (sensory overload leading to avoidance-behaviours) and hypo-sensitivities (sensory dampening leading to seeking-behaviours) across seven different sense domains (visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory, tactile, vestibular, proprioception). We validated this novel measure on the parents of 601 English children 6–11 years. Both the long version (42-items GSQ-P) and an additional reduced version (24-item rGSQ-P) significantly associated with children’s anxiety, behavioural difficulties, and ability to empathise. As expected, sensory sensitivities were invariant across age and gender, but non-typically developing children had significantly elevated scores compared to typically developing peers (in both GSQ-P and rGSQ-P). We also provide insight into the structure of sensory sensitivities in children, showing for the first time that hyper sensitivities cluster by sense (e.g., tactile questions cluster together; visual questions cluster together) whilst hypo sensitivities cluster by behaviour (e.g., a cluster of seeking-behaviours irrespective of sense; a cluster of sensory dampening irrespective of sense). We offer both instruments (GSQ-P and rGSQ-P) as free reliable measures for better understanding children’s sensitivities, for use in different circumstances depending on focus.

儿童的感官敏感性不仅存在于一系列儿童疾病中，而且存在于一般人群中。目前的探索性研究检验了一种新的家长报告测量的可靠性和有效性，该测量评估了正常发育和非典型发育儿童的感官敏感性。这份由家长完成的包含 42 项的格拉斯哥感官问卷(GSQ-P) 由我们从现有的成人工具（格拉斯哥感官问卷）改编而来，并测量儿童的过度敏感（感觉超负荷导致回避行为）和低敏感（感觉抑制导致寻求行为）七个不同的感觉域（视觉、听觉、味觉、嗅觉、触觉、前庭、本体感觉）。我们对 601 名 6-11 岁英国儿童的父母验证了这项新措施。长版本（42 项 GSQ-P）和额外的简化版本（24 项 rGSQ-P）都与儿童的焦虑、行为困难和移情能力显着相关。正如预期的那样，感官敏感性在年龄和性别之间是不变的，但与正常发育的同龄人相比，非典型发育的儿童得分显着提高（在 GSQ-P 和 rGSQ-P 中）。我们还提供了对儿童感官敏感性结构的深入了解，首次表明超敏感按感觉聚集（例如，触觉问题聚集在一起；视觉问题聚集在一起），而低敏感性按行为聚集（例如，一组寻求-不考虑感觉的行为；不考虑感觉的一组感觉抑制）。我们提供这两种工具（GSQ-P 和 rGSQ-P）作为免费的可靠措施，以更好地了解儿童的敏感性，根据重点在不同情况下使用。首次表明超敏感按感觉聚集（例如，触觉问题聚集在一起；视觉问题聚集在一起），而低敏感性按行为聚集（例如，一组不考虑感官的寻求行为；一组不考虑感官的感觉阻尼感觉）。我们提供这两种工具（GSQ-P 和 rGSQ-P）作为免费的可靠措施，以更好地了解儿童的敏感性，根据重点在不同情况下使用。首次显示超敏感按感觉聚集（例如，触觉问题聚集在一起；视觉问题聚集在一起），而低敏感性按行为聚集（例如，一组不考虑感官的寻求行为；一组不考虑感官的感觉阻尼感觉）。我们提供这两种工具（GSQ-P 和 rGSQ-P）作为免费的可靠措施，以更好地了解儿童的敏感性，根据重点在不同情况下使用。