Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile (AASP)

The AASP (Brown and Dunn, 2002) consists of 60 items that measure trait sensory processing styles in daily life. There are 15 items assessing each of the four quadrants defined in the model by Dunn (1997): LR, Seek, Sen, and SA. LR items tap into the extent to which an individual fails to notice or is slow to respond to environmental stimuli. Seek items focus on one’s proclivity to seek out and enjoy environmental stimulation. SA items inquire about attempts to avoid or reduce exposure to environmental stimuli. Finally, Sen items assess the degree to which one notices and is distracted or made uncomfortable by environmental stimuli. Participants respond to each item using a five-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 = Almost never to 5 = Almost always. Individual quadrant scores can range from 5 to 75. The items comprising the AASP tap into responses to visual, auditory, tactile, and taste/smell cues, as well as vestibular/proprioceptive cues related to movement processing, and Brown and Dunn report that quadrant scores generalize across these different sensory modalities.

Brown et al. (2001) conducted a large standardization study that included 950 adolescents/adults. They reported that the AASP has good convergent and discriminant validity. They also reported that the internal consistency of quadrant scores ranged from an alpha of 0.64 to 0.78. Based on the results of their standardization study, Brown et al. (2001) provided cut-scores clinicians can use to identify unusually high or low quadrant scores. Later, we refer to quadrant scores for our participants that fell above the 84th and below the 16th percentile of a normative sample in Brown et al. (2001) as peaks and valleys, respectively.