Music Therapy for Speech and Prosody in Autistic Children (MTSPAC)

Autism Clinical Trial

Official title:

Effectiveness of Music Therapy for Speech Delay and Prosody Disorder in Children With Autism

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Not yet recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT06110884
• Other study ID #: 202307099RIND
• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: January 1, 2024
• Est. completion date: December 31, 2026

Study information

• Verified date: October 2023
• Source: National Taiwan University Hospital
• Contact: Chih-en Liu, university
• Phone: 886-3-5326151
• Email: G03486[@]hch.gov.tw
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This research is a single-blind randomized controlled trial, where the investigators plan to recruit 40 children with autism, randomly divided into two groups. The music therapy intervention group will receive an hour of group music therapy in addition to traditional language therapy. The control group will receive only traditional language therapy. The trial will last for 8 weeks, and participants in both groups will be assessed before and after the trial.

During the study, the investigators will use professional recording equipment to record their speech and use the speech analysis software to objectively compare whether there are significant differences in prosody between the two groups of children with autism before and after the intervention. Besides the acoustic measurement the investigators also assess the language abilities autism trait performance, adaptive function, emotional behavior, and parent-child stress levels.

Description:

This research is a single-blind randomized controlled trial, where the investigators plan to recruit 40 children with autism, randomly divided into two groups. The music therapy intervention group will receive an hour of group music therapy in addition to traditional language therapy. The control group will receive only traditional language therapy. The trial will last for 8 weeks, and participants in both groups will be assessed before and after the trial.

During the study, the investigators will use professional recording equipment to record their speech and use the speech analysis software to objectively compare whether there are significant differences in prosody between the two groups of children with autism before and after the intervention. Besides the acoustic measurement the investigators also assess the language abilities autism trait performance, adaptive function, emotional behavior, and parent-child stress levels.

The study hypothesizes that music therapy can contribute to improving language development delays in children with autism and may enhance their language development further by ameliorating prosody abnormalities. The investigators hope that this research can propose more diversified therapeutic methods for language development in children with autism.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Enrollment: 40
• Est. completion date: December 31, 2026
• Est. primary completion date: December 31, 2026
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 3 Years to 5 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• children with autism

• aged 3-5 y/o

• children with speech delay (T-score of Preschool Language Scale < 40)

• Mandarin as first language

Exclusion Criteria:

• children with other neurological diseases

• children without verbal output

• children with articulation or voice disorder

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Autism
• Language Delay
• Language Development Disorders
• Speech Disorders
• Speech Disorders in Children

Intervention

Behavioral:
• music therapy, speech therapy
receive group music therapy in addition to traditional language therapy
• speech therapy
receive only traditional language therapy

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
n/a

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
National Taiwan University Hospital

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Revised version of the Preschool Language Scale (PLS)	assess the language abilities of children, minimum value 0, maximum value 83, higher scores means a better outcome	8 weeks
Primary	Checklist for Autism Spectrum Disorder-Chinese Version (CASD-C)	evaluate autism trait performance	8 weeks
Secondary	Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 1½-5 (CBCL 1½-5)	evaluate emotional behavior	8 weeks
Secondary	Parenting Stress Index	evaluate parent-child stress levels, minimum value 36, maximum value 180, higher scores means a worse outcome	8 weeks