Sensory integration is the organization of the senses for their use. It is a neuro-biological activity that allows the reception and processing of sensory information, which in large quantities from the senses come to the brain, at all times. The aim of the study is to examine the prevalence of sensory integration difficulties of the tactile sensory system of children with developmental disabilities, and to establish the statistical significance of differences in relation to the type of difficulty. The total sample of respondents (N=60) consisted of four subsamples of 15 respondents, namely; children with autism, children with Down syndrome, children with hearing impairment and children with sight impairment. The Mann-Whitney U test and the Wilcoxon W test at the level of statistical significance of p<0.05 were used to test the statistical significance of the differences between the subsamples of the subjects. The results of the study show that 86.67% of children with autism, 66.67% of children with Down syndrome, 20% of children with hearing impairment and 40% of children with sight impairment have difficulties with sensory integration of the tactile system. Children with hearing impairment (Rank M 43.97), children with sight impairment (Rank M 35.03), children with Down syndrome, and children with autism (Rank M 14.93) show the least difficulty in sensory integration of the tactile sensory system. There is a statistically significant difference in the difficulties of sensory integration of the tactile sensory system between children with autism, children with Down syndrome, children with hearing impairment and children with sight impairment at the level of statistical significance of p<0.05.

Sensory integration represents the organization of the senses for their use. It is a neuro-biological activity that allows the reception and processing of sensory information, which in arrive from the senses in huge quantities into the brain, at any time. The ability of the brain to successfully process tactile information allows the child to feel safe and develop a connection with those around it. An autistic child is not able to register many stimuli from their environment, so insufficient or poor sensory processing can contribute to the image of autism. Children with autism spectrum difficulties have specific difficulties in touch perception. The aim of the study was to examine the prevalence of sensory integration difficulties of the tactile sensory system of children with autism spectrum disorders, and to establish the statistical significance of differences in relation to children without developmental difficulties. The total sample of subjects (N=30) consisted of two subsamples. The first subsample of subjects (N=15) consisted of children with difficulties from the autism spectrum, and the second subsample of subjects (N=15) consisted of children without developmental difficulties. The measurement instrument was the „Questionnaire for testing tactile sensory sensitivity“ with 11 variables and the offered answers of possible sensory response was applied. The Mann-Whitney U test and the Wilcoxon W test at the level of statistical significance of p<0.05 were used to examine the statistical significance of the differences between the subsamples of the subjects. The results of the study showed that 86.67 % of children with autism have difficulties in sensory integration of the tactile sensory system. The hypersensitive type of sensory response has 26.67 %, and the hyposensitive sensory response 20 % of children with autism. 40.00 % of children with autism have a mixed type of tactile sensory. There is a statistically significant difference between children with autism and children without developmental difficulties on 4 variables.

Since the development of the original Support Intensity Scale—Adult Version (SIS-A) and the Support Intensity Scale—Child Version (SIS-C), the interest in supporting people with intellectual disabilities (ID) has changed. Resource allocation, better quality of resource utilization in the rehabilitation process, the development of support systems, and redefining the roles of organizations that support people with ID are just some of the changes. The aim of this study was to determine the factor structure of the SIS-C conducted on a sample of Bosnian–Herzegovinian (B&H) children (SISC B&H). The study included 377 children ID in B&H, aged 5-16. The data was analyzed with the SPSS 21 software (with the AMOS package). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to examine the factor structure of the SIS-C. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was applied to determine the factor and constructive validity of SIS-C B&H. The CFA results indicated a poor fit of both the theoretical and empirical models even after modifications were made. The EFA showed the opposite results. This could be explained by the fact that within the factor solutions obtained from the EFA, various aslope or orthogonal models, linear or hierarchical, can be constructed. Among these models, some exhibited good fit to the data. Thus, data from the current study could be used to generate new hypotheses and deliver more conclusive answers.

Background: People with intellectual disability, have been shown to become high and frequent users of primary health care services—both general population health professionals and intellectual disability specialists. Aim: The aim of this paper has been to assess differences of Health and Safety Activities children with intellectual disabilities on the Supports Intensity Scale-Children’s Version and to confirm assumptions that support needs are confounded with age, IQ andgender.Methods:The sample included 377 children with intellectual disabilities in Bosnia and Herzegovina aged 5-16. Most respondents also had the presence of other, concurrent conditions and disorders. Using IQ, the sample was equalized to the level of intellectual functioning, and this data was obtained from the findings and opinions of the Commission for the Categorization of Children with Special Needs.Results:It was found at the multivariate level there are statistically significant differences between respondents of different ages and IQ in values of type, frequency and time of duration of support. No significant differences between boys and girls were identified at the multivariate level. Healthcare professionals and intellectual disability specialists must work as a team to guarantee any person with intellectual disability possibility to come as close as possible to the standard levels of well-being and health-related quality of life of the general population.