Nonverbal and Low Verbal Autism Clinical Trial
Official title:
Melodic-based Communication Therapy for Promoting Spoken Language Development in Individuals With Nonverbal Autism Ages: 3:0 - 10:11
The purpose of this study is to determine the efficacy of Melodic Based Communication Therapy (M.B.C.T.) for increasing oral expressive skills in nonverbal children with autism spectrum disorders. MBCT has previously been shown to facilitate an improvement in expressive vocabulary, verbal imitative abilities, number of vocalizations, and social language development in nonverbal children with autism ages 5-7. However, earlier studies were small and did not examine the effects of M.B.C.T. on a younger and older population. This study will examine its effectiveness across a broader sample group. Additionally, this study will examine further predictors of success including but not limited to chronological age, developmental age, the frequency of repetitive/stereotypic behaviors, receptive language score, and social language score.
The study will be a repeated measures design as assessments will be taken at baseline and on a weekly basis (baseline, weeks 1-4). All participants in the study will receive Melodic Based Communication Therapy (M.B.C.T.). General procedures involved in (M.B.C.T.) are as follows: 25 common first words are selected as the targets (e.g., apple, ball, car, dog, cat, eat, go, etc.). Pictures and objects will be used as stimulus items. The top 3-5 incentives as identified by parent survey will be given according to the therapies specific reinforcement schedule. All treatment and evaluation sessions will be videotaped for future/further analysis and verification purposes. For the purposes of the study design, the same 25 words will be used for all participants. 4. Subjects will be male and female children diagnosed with autism. 5. Subjects will be between 3 years 0 months and 10 years 11 months of age. 6. In total, subject participation will last approximately 4 weeks. ;