自閉スペクトラム症のある青年の作業遂行技能と感覚および自己効力感との関連に関する研究

Relationship between occupational performance with sensory processing and self-efficacy in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder

要旨：自閉スペクトラム症（Autism Spectrum Disorder；以下，ASD）児の感覚や運動，操作技能の問題は報告されているが，ASDの高校生年代の報告はほとんどない．そこで，ASD青年の作業遂行技能と感覚，自己効力感等との関連を，定型発達（Typical Development；以下，TD）青年と比較した．その結果，ASD青年は作業遂行技能に問題があり，感覚処理では感覚探求でTD青年より有意に低かった．また，ASD青年の作業遂行技能は感覚や自己効力感等と相関はなかったが，自己効力感等は感覚過敏と相関があった．これらより，高校生年代のASD青年にも継続した作業遂行技能と感覚処理の評価・支援が必要と言える．

　It has been reported that children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) frequently suffer from abnormalities in sensory processing, clumsiness and problems of task performance skills. However, there have been few reports about those problems in high school-aged adolescents with ASD. We compared such adolescents' task performance skills with those of typically developed adolescents (TD), and studied the relationship between their skills and the level of abnormalities in sensory processing and clumsiness. Our study revealed that adolescents with ASD had more problems in task performance, and that the score of “sensory seeking” was significantly lower than that of TD adolescents. On the other hand, there was no correlation between task performance skills and self-efficacy, or between task performance skills and the level of abnormalities in sensory processing. However, there was a significant correlation between self-efficacy and “sensory sensitivity”. Our results suggest that the continuous assessment and support for task performance and for sensory processing might be necessary for the high school-aged adolescents.