Brief Report: Prevalence and Severity of Auditory Sensory Over-Responsivity in Autism as Reported by Parents and Caregivers

Auditory sensory over-responsivity (aSOR) is a frequently reported sensory feature of autism spectrum disorders (ASD); however, there is little consensus regarding its prevalence and severity. This cross-sectional study uses secondary data from the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R; Item 72: undue sensitivity to noise) housed in the US National Institute of Mental Health Data Archives to identify prevalence and severity of aSOR. Of the 4104 subjects with ASD ages 2–54 (M = 9, SD = 5.8) who responded to item 72, 60.1% (n = 1876) had aSOR currently (i.e., point prevalence) and 71.1% (n = 2221) reported having aSOR ever (i.e., lifetime prevalence). aSOR prevalence and severity were affected by age, but there were no associations with sex.