htp://saliniana.com.ba 16 ORIGINAL TACTILE AND HEARING SENSITIVITY OF CHILDREN WITH AND WITHOUT AUTISM USING THE SENSORY PROFILE AND DSM-5 Bahira Demirović, Amila Mujezinović, Munevera Bećarević, Nermin Demirović, Nejra Bećarević, Alma Dizdarević, Vesna Bratovčić © by Acta Medica Saliniana ISSN 0350-364X Type of manuscript: Professional papers Title: TACTILE AND HEARING SENSITIVITY OF CHILDREN WITH AND WITHOUT AUTISM USING THE SENSORY PROFILE AND DSM-5 Authors: Bahira Demirović 1 , Amila Mujezinović 1 , Munevera Bećarević 2 , Nermin Demirović 3 , Nejra Bećarević 2 , Alma Dizdarević 1 , Vesna Bratovčić 1 DOI: 10.5457/446 Afiliations: 1 Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation, University of Tuzla, 2 Faculty of Medicine, University of Tuzla, 3 Institute for Special Education and Child Education Mjedenica Received: 17.07.2018. Corresponding author: Bahira Demirović bahira.demirovic@ukctuzla.ba Background: Children with autism in their characteristics show a series of unusual reactions to stimuli in all areas of the sensory system. Aim: The aim of this paper was to compare the tactile and auditory processes, i.e. to determine the deficits of these processes by children with autism spectrum disorder (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th ed.) in relation to children with intellectual disabilities and children of the typical population. Methods: The sample consisted of a total of 105 children. During the survey, the method of proportional stratified sample was used and the data collection was carried out in 2017 on the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Short Sensory Profile was applied (Dunn, 1999) and through 13 items, Tactile Perception and Hearing Perception were examined. Results: It was found that 71.4% of children with autism had significant difficulties in the area of tactile perception and 65.7% in the area of hearing perception. Tactile and hearing sensitivity is also common by children with intellectual disabilities, which undermines the inclusion of the difficulty of sensory processing as a key diagnostic criterion for autism. Keywords: autism, tactile sensitivity, hearing sensitivity, DSM-V. INTRODUCTION Everything we do requires sensory integration and when it comes to sensory data, it refers to the information that comes in tactile, vestibular, proprioceptive, auditory, visual and oral-gustatory systems (1). In one word, we can say that the world is experiencing the senses and the way in which sensory input and processing is carried out is reflected directly on our behaviour and learning. Children with autism in their characteristics show a whole series of unusual reactions to stimuli in the area of tactile, auditory, visual and olfactory, vestibular and perceptive systems. Reports show that more than 96% of children with autism are hyper or hyposensitive in multiple domains, communication, social deficits, and sensory behavioural differences ranging from mild to severe. Although sensory hypersensitivity is not unique only to children with autism, it is more common in this population than in other populations. Studies of the comparison of the pattern of the sensory processes of children with autism or other pervasive developmental disorders with the control group of the typical population revealed the essential differences in the profile of the sensory processes of children with autism. These result clearly showed that dysfunction of sensory processes is one of the key characteristics of autism (2). Some children with autism are described as sensitively insensitive or have a high threshold in response to stimuli (3), while they may be hypersensitive to sounds, others may look like deaf, as a consequence of the problem of sensory processing (4). Recent research has reported that a high percentage of children with autism show unusual responses to sensory experiences, compared to the responses offered by typically developing children with the same chronological age (5). These difficulties affect the entire spectrum, so that the greater the sensory dysfunction, the greater the severity of the autism symptomatology (6) and they are present from toddlers to adults (7). The latest version of the DSM has included a typical sensory responsiveness or unusual interests in sensory aspects of the environment as one of four possible elements of which two must be met in Criterion B, which combined with persistent deficits in social communication and interaction across multiple contexts, define autism spectrum disorder (8). However,