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Updated: Jun 21, 2026

Testing Sensory and Multisensory Function in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Published on: April 22, 2015
The canonical relationship between sensory-motor functioning and cognitive processing in children with
Andrew S Davis1, Lisa A Pass, W Holmes Finch
1Department of Educational Psychology, Ball State University, Teachers College Room 515, Muncie, IN 47306, USA. davis@bsu.edu
Abstract:
Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) typically exhibits a pattern of behavioral deficits, impairment in academic achievement, and cognitive processing, and presents with sensory-motor deficits. This study examined the relationships between sensory-motor tasks, cognitive processing, and academic achievement for a group of 67 children with ADHD. Strong canonical correlations emerged between sensory-motor functioning and academic achievement (.93) and sensory-motor functioning and cognitive processing (.98). An analysis of the redundancy coefficient showed that sensory-motor skills accounted for 65% of the variance in the achievement variables and 31% of the variance in the cognitive processing variables. The strong relationship between sensory-motor skills and higher order cognitive processes indicates that early assessment of sensory-motor skills may be useful in the identification of subsequent deficits in academic performance. Neuropsychologists should carefully consider the contribution of sensory-motor functioning to the more widely studied and assessed constructs of academic, behavioral, and emotional problems in children with ADHD.
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