Family, Life Course, and Society Commons^™

Making Sense Of Their World: Sensory Awareness And Sensory Reactivity As Predictors Of Social Interaction In Early Childhood, Cortney Anne Evans

Theses and Dissertations

The purposes of this study were to (a) test the validity of a sensory reactivity measure adapted for parents of preschool-age children, (b) examine if different modalities of sensory reactivity (i.e. smell, touch, taste, etc.) emerge together or if differing thresholds of reactivity exist between sensory modalities, (c) see how parental ratings of preschoolers' sensory reactivity are related to children's behaviors in the classroom, and (d) see if sensory reactivity bears different relationships to children's social behaviors than do other aspects of temperament. A total of 260 parents (242 mothers, 18 fathers) and 10 teachers of 260 children (131 male, …