How Simplified Language Affects Comprehension and Learning in Young Autistic Children

Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinical Trial

— PALS  

Official title:

How Single-Word and Telegraphic Simplification Affects Language Processing and Word Learning in Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT05707923
• Other study ID #: 4584124
• Secondary ID: R01DC020165
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: June 1, 2023
• Est. completion date: May 31, 2027

Study information

• Verified date: November 2023
• Source: Michigan State University
• Contact: Courtney Venker, PhD
• Phone: 5178842259
• Email: cvenker[@]msu.edu
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The long-term study goal is to experimentally evaluate the components (and likely active ingredients) of early language interventions for young children with ASD. The overall objective is to determine how single-word and telegraphic simplification affects real-time language processing and word learning in young children with ASD (relative to full, grammatical utterances). The proposed project will investigate three specific aims: 1) Determine how single-word and telegraphic simplification affects language processing. 2) Determine how single-word and telegraphic simplification affects word learning. 3) Evaluate child characteristics that may moderate the effects of linguistic simplification on language processing and word learning. Aim 1 will test the hypothesis that children with ASD will process full, grammatical utterances faster and more accurately than single-word or telegraphic utterances. Aim 2 will test the hypothesis that full, grammatical utterances will support word learning better than telegraphic or single-word utterances. Aim 3 will test the hypothesis that language and cognitive skills significantly moderate the effects of linguistic simplification on language processing and word learning in young children with ASD.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Recruiting
• Enrollment: 104
• Est. completion date: May 31, 2027
• Est. primary completion date: May 31, 2027
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 1 Year to 4 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Existing or suspected autism spectrum disorder, confirmed through ADOS-2

• English as primary language

• 1-4 years old

Exclusion Criteria:

• Known genetic condition (e.g., Down syndrome, fragile X)

• Cerebral palsy

• Acquired brain injury

• Uncorrected vision or hearing impairment

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Autistic Disorder

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Linguistic simplification
Children will participate in screen-based language processing and word learning tasks in which they hear utterances with different types and amounts of linguistic simplification (i.e., a within-group manipulation).

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Michigan State University	East Lansing	Michigan

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Michigan State University	National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Gaze location on Looking-While-Listening (LWL) tasks	LWL involves a child looking at a screen with two images, one on each side of the screen, while being provided an auditory cue that includes the name of the target image. The primary outcome is a dichotomous variable indicating whether the child is fixated on the target image or the distracter image; gaze directed at neither image will be considered missing. It will be determined whether gaze is to the left or right image, using trained coders who are blind to target side. Gaze location will be observed every 33 ms from 300 ms after onset to 2000 ms after target word onset, for a total of 51 observations per trial. Analyses will focus on differences across trial types and child characteristics in the trajectory of gaze location over the course of the trial.	Single assessment per task; total duration less than 10 minutes per task
Secondary	Gaze location in Teaching Phase of Study 2b (Fast Mapping)	A secondary outcome measure will be gaze location during the Teaching Phase of the Fast Mapping task (Study 2b). The variable is a dichotomous variable indicating whether the child is fixated on the novel image (only a single image is presented in each trial during the Teaching Phase) or not. It will be determined whether gaze is directed to the novel image, as our prior attempts to manually code single-object trials have not been successful. Only children who successfully calibrate and provide adequate automatic eye-tracking data in the Fast Mapping task will be included. Gaze location will be observed every 33 ms during the Teaching Trials. Analyses will focus on differences across trial types (single-word vs. full, grammatical teaching utterances).	Single assessment; total duration less than 10 minutes