Emerging Ideas. Parent perspectives on children with sensory over‐responsivity

• Published date: 01 December 2023
• Author: Beth Ohanneson,Sarah A. Schoen,Vanessa Mitchell
• Date: 01 December 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12843

BRIEF REPORT

Emerging Ideas. Parent perspectives on children

with sensory over-responsivity

Beth Ohanneson

1

|Sarah A. Schoen

2,3

|Vanessa Mitchell

4

1

Marriage and Family Therapist, Private

Practice, San Francisco, CA

2

STAR Institute, Denver, CO

3

Rocky Mountain University of Health

Professions, Provo, UT

4

Occupational Therapist, Private Practice,

Morgan Hill, CA

Correspondence

Sarah A. Schoen, STAR Institute, 6911

S. Yosemite Street, Centennial, CO 80112,

USA.

Email: sarah.schoen@spdstar.org

Abstract

Objective: This pilot study sought to explore the experi-

ence of children with sensory over-responsivity (SOR) dur-

ing a sensory meltdown and the extent that parents feel

confident about strategies they use to support their child.

Background: A large percentage of children with sensory

processing challenges present with SOR. A better under-

standing of the experience of children withSOR is suggested

to clarify severity and help parents respond effectively.

Method: A retrospective analysis was conducted. An anon-

ymous survey questionnaire was sent to 110 members of

an online support group. Thirty-six parent responses were

collected from families of children with sensory processing

challenges in San Francisco.

Results: Results indicated 88.9% of parents reported their

child experiencing an SOR meltdown, with 51.4% having

asked their child what a sensory meltdown feels like, and

31.4% reporting an experience of pain. Those children

who responded to the question “does it hurt?”offered

descriptions reflective of an “assault”(e.g., “it feels like

knives are stabbing my bones,”“it’s killing me,”“it’s

completely overwhelming”). Only 30.6% of parents

reported feeling confident about how to respond to their

child during sensory events.

Conclusion: Descriptions reported in this exploratory study

suggest a change in terminology. Preliminary evidence sug-

gests that these meltdowns may be more accurately

described as sensory assaults.

Implications: This perspective could influence parental and

societal views of children with SOR. More research is

needed to determine how widespread the experience of

pain with SOR is and if a better understanding of chil-

dren’s experiences can inform family interventions.

Received: 11 July 2021Revised: 3 November 2022Accepted: 26 December 2022

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12843

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and

reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2023 The Authors. Family Relations published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of National Council on Family Relations.

2820 Family Relations. 2023;72:2820–2832.

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare