View clinical trials related to Autistic Disorder.
Filter by:Autism spectrum condition (ASC) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized fundamentally by social deficits. Emotional competence - the ability to express, recognize, understand, and regulate emotions - is a key aspect of social communication. Evidence suggests that the developmental trajectories of autistic children differ from that of neuro-typical children regarding their ability to process and recognize emotions from paralinguistic emotional facial, body language, and voice tone cues. They also have difficulty integrating these cues in context and lack in emotional language. Numerous approaches to teaching people with autism how to recognize and understand emotions have been tried, with recent increased interest in computer-based interventions (CBI). However, most of the research focused only on facial expressions, were limited to autistic children with no intellectual disabilities (ID); and showed limited generalization to real social settings. EmotiPlay, a computer-based intervention program, designed to enhance emotion recognition (ER) by addressing multiple modalities of emotional cues (facial expressions, tone of voice, body language), has shown good outcome when used at home by autistic children and no ID . However, the examination of generalization was partial and depended only on parental reports. The present study main goals are to: (1) Examine the adaptation and the integration of EmotiPlay into special education classrooms in regular schools. (2) Assess EmotiPlay's effect on emotional competence among autistic children at different functioning levels.
In Singapore, Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is ranked number one in disease burden for children 0-14 years of age. The Child Development Unit at the National University Hospital serves 3000 children annually, of which 25-30% of children have been diagnosed with ASD. Therapist roles are to provide interim therapy for these children before entry into community-based Early Intervention Centres (EIPIC), which currently have waiting times of 6-9 months. Current limitations with interim care includes long wait times, high cost for families, lack of manpower and space to serve the patients, poor parental involvement due to their work commitments, parental difficulties attending frequent, needed, in-hospital therapy and difficulty generalizing patient treatment to the home/community setting (decreasing effectiveness). The proposed Telerehabilitation (also called Telerehab) initiative involves the use of video conferencing technology to help address the aforementioned deficits. Offering early intervention through Telerehab will enable previously unattainable benefits such as seeing the child in their home environment, allowing multiple caregivers to have access to the early intervention training, more frequent contact with families and the ability to trouble shoot real life difficulties in real time. The important advantages to the caregivers include less financial burden arising from time off from work and travel, more access to treatment over a longer period of time and ability to access a multidisciplinary team. An additional benefit for the children is they need not travel to unfamiliar environments, which is frequently distressing for children with ASD. Lastly, Telerehab is a sustainable initiative allowing for less manpower to cover the growing number of patients, and the possibility to be implemented in other government run hospitals and clinics facing similar challenges. Elaboration of benefits:1) Importance of parent and caregiver empowerment. Early Intervention in the current model has been predominantly centre based with initiatives to increase caregiver education. A large body of literature suggests that early intervention is highly successful when provided at the age of diagnosis, with younger children yielding better outcomes. Caregiver involvement is vital to long-term success, as they spend a significant amount of time with their child; they can support the generalizations of new skills. National Research Council identifies parent training to be the key component for successful intervention for children with autism. Parent training improves quality of life by reducing parental stress and increasing optimism.2) Addressing nationally identified gaps. The Enabling Master plan recommendations for 2012-2016 (under Ministry of Family and Social Development) identifies gaps in family involvement and support in acquiring necessary skills and knowledge to be competent in helping their children make developmental gains. Child Development Unit (CDU) envisions that Telerehab is a viable avenue for supporting parents in learning EI skills.3) Improving existing parent training programmes. CDU has successfully piloted a parent-training program for children with ASD called SPEECCH. In our study of the impact of this parent-training program, children made measurable progress in all four skill areas assessed (p<0.001). Focus on achievable and observable family- centred developmental goals showed evidence for increased parental understanding of children's learning and behaviour amp; effective use of strategies for facilitating communication and interactions to support their child's development (p<0.001). However this intervention service could not be sustained due to high caseload demands and insufficient manpower. Parent interviews during review visits identified having sustained contact with therapists and parent coaching to be key areas of need. Currently the service provides intervention for 24 children with ASD weekly for one hour across 12 weeks, and continued support for up to 20 weeks (maximum of 16 hours of intervention). Of the new referrals of 150 children with ASD, if a sustained service is to be provided, only a small group of children will receive intervention. In order to address the demand, the frequency and intensity of intervention has had to be sacrificed to be able to provide some service to all patients. Hence to maximize the impact of early intervention, a sustainable model of service delivery using technology through videoconferencing is being proposed.
This project will evaluate the effectiveness of MINDful TIME, an 8-week mindfulness-based program designed to improve mental health in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder and their caregivers. MINDful TIME includes weekly psychoeducational group meetings conducted through videoconferencing and use of a commercially available mindfulness meditation app. The investigators predict that adolescents in the mindfulness intervention group will demonstrate increases in self-reported mindfulness and reductions in self- and parent-reported anxiety and depression relative to a delayed treatment control group. The investigators will also explore whether caregivers in the treatment group demonstrate improvements in quality of life.
The investigator would like to investigate the impact of theta-burst stimulation over cerebellum in adults with autism spectrum disorder
This is a 20-week open-label study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of full-spectrum medicinal cannabis plant extract < 0.08% THC (FEN164) in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
The Neuro-Strength-Based Approach to Autism (NSBAA) attempts to translate what research has discovered about the autistic brain into terms that autistics, and those involved with autistics, can understand. It is not intended to be a new approach to intervention but hopefully a unifying approach to understanding autism that all therapists, educators, clinicians, and parents can use when working with autistic individuals. It was developed by an autistic occupational therapist, based on her lifetime obsession of learning everything she could about how typical brains work, and, following her diagnosis, how the autistic brain works. Being on the autism spectrum herself and having worked with, and interacted with, autistic individuals of all ages and abilities in school, clinical, and personal settings, the author attempts to explain the autistic brain from both the scientific as well as autistic perspectives.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) refers to a group of neurodevelopmental disorders including autism.Despite ongoing studies, the pathogenesis of ASD still remains unclear.The global prevalence of ASD was estimated at 1% in 2015.The diagnostic criteria for ASD are specified in the DSM ( American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ) and serve as guideline for clinicians at the present. However, its early diagnosis value is limited due to a high subjectivities and its low diagnostic sensitivity and specificity.Early detection and early pharmacological and behavioral interventions are critical in improving the symptoms and preventing the disease progression. There are no medications that directly treat the core symptoms present in individuals with ASD, and the effectiveness of interventions remains limited. Therefore, accurate assessment of pharmacological efficacy is necessary for the reatment, and prognostication of individuals with ASD. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a commonly used imaging tool for clinical disease diagnosis, especially for neurological disorders. Besides, Structural Magnetic Resonance imaging reflects neuropathological and microstructural developmental changes during growth. Radiomics based on the high-dimensional quantitation of medical images, allowing extraction of more detailed characteristics than is possible with conventional visual interpretation. This study aims: (1)To explore an objective diagnostic method through radiomics in children with ASD (2)to provide prognostic estimates of the outcome, based on estimates of an individual patient's prognosis and the efficacy of different drug therapies.
The goal of this research is to explore abilities to learn word meanings from overheard conversations in children with ASD (and, as a control, typically developing children). Specific Aim 2 (Experiment 2): Determine whether children with ASD can learn from addressed and overheard teaching via videoconferencing. The investigators will use a similar procedure to Study 1, except that both overheard and directed teaching will take place on video.
This research project will investigate if a supplement containing a unique combination of prebiotics and probiotics can influence behaviour in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The study will use a combination of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs, prebiotics) and probiotics as an oral powder.This clinical trial will have two consecutive phases. Phase 1A is an 8-week randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial. Participants will be recruited and randomised (1:1) to receive either the investigational product (treatment group, n=30) or the placebo (control group, n=30). Phase 1B is an 8-week open-label study. All participants that complete Phase 1A will move into Phase 1B (n=60). This allows all participants to receive the investigational product and will provide additional information on increased duration of treatment.
This study will investigate the efficacy, safety and tolerability of L1-79 in participants aged 12-21 years who have been diagnosed with ASD with a score of >/= 70 on the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI-II), and a score of >/= 4 on the Clinical Global Impression of Severity of Illness (CGI-S) weighted for socialization.