Speech Treatment for Minimally Verbal Children with ASD and CAS

We are a team of researchers located at the MGH Institute of Health Professions (MGH IHP) in Boston, MA. We are completing a study about speech therapy treatment for children with the motor speech disorder childhood apraxia of speech and autism. Instead of being primarily drill-based, therapy will be embedded in a social, play-based context to provide ecologically valid feedback and help children generalize their skills as much as possible.

What are the goals of the study?

The main aim of this study is to test whether treatment for the motor speech disorder childhood apraxia of speech, appropriately modified for minimally verbal autistic children, does in fact improve speech production in minimally verbal children with both conditions.

What will happen during the visit or online?

Prospective participants will be assessed in our lab in Charlestown with a variety of measures that document their speech, language, social, and nonverbal IQ skills. During the speech tasks only (estimated to last approximately 30 minutes), children will wear reflective markers, 2-3 millimeters in size, on their faces. Our multiple camera system will track the movements of these markers as children attempt to repeat a series of syllables and simple words. Baseline assessments are conservatively estimated to last approximately 4 hours, scheduled as two 2-hour visits. All assessments will be audio- and videotaped for later analysis.

During the baseline visits, children’s parents will also be asked to complete a series of questionnaires that document demographics, developmental history, and current levels of community functioning.

After analysis of baseline data (documenting that participants meet criteria for ASD, minimally verbal status, and CAS), children who meet inclusion criteria will be invited to receive treatment. A set of 6 one- or two-syllable words will be selected for each child, identified from their baseline tests to specifically involve the speech movements that are found to be disordered in their speech (i.e., stimuli will consist of words that the child can attempt to say but which are not pronounced perfectly).

Treatment will consist of 15 hour-long sessions over 3 weeks and may take place in our lab or at a child’s home or school, and will be video- and audio-recorded for later analysis.

During treatment sessions, children will practice each target multiple times, divided into separate practice blocks and interspersed with practice on the other targets. A “scaffolding” hierarchy will be employed to help children learn the correct speech movements for each target. Specific scaffolding activities that the therapist will provide include (1) producing the target slowly, (2) producing it in unison with the therapist, (3) gradually fading out this assistance as the child learns to produce the targets correctly on their own, and (4) providing tactile or visual cues to help children remember the correct oral movements for each target.

Practice will occur in a naturalistic, developmentally-informed framework, which involves embedding speech tasks within social interactions organized around play or social activities that are matched to the child’s developmental level and that incorporate the child’s target words. For example, if a child has difficulty saying the consonant /k/, the word “cookie” might be selected as a target. This word could be practiced during an activity where therapist and child pretend to feed a stuffed animal cookies or where they actually decorate and eat cookies as a snack. The aim is for children to learn correct speech production at the same time that they engage in positive and rewarding social interactions that promote skill generalization, rather than for them to simply respond to therapist prompts.

After treatment is completed, children will be invited back to the lab to have their speech production analyzed, using the same procedures as at baseline. They may also re-enroll to receive an additional series of 15 treatment sessions if desired.

For their time, participants will receive $50 for completion of the baseline testing and $100 upon completion of the post-treatment testing. Parking compensation will be provided for each visit to our Charlestown lab location.

How will this help families?

In our research, we are interested in understanding why many children with autism don’t learn to talk on their own. Our ultimate goal is to improve communication outcomes for children at risk for being minimally verbal. In this study, participants will be contributing to the advancement and development of evidence-based speech treatment approaches for children with autism and childhood apraxia of speech.

This study is being completed by a team of health researchers from the SPAN (Speech in Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders) Lab at the MGH Institute of Health Professions (MGH IHP) in Boston, MA. In this study, we want to understand how minimally and low-verbal autistic children perceive speech sounds, and then to see if that is related to their own speech production and expressive language abilities.

What are the goals of the study?

We hypothesize that, if some kids can’t hear the difference between similar-sounding words like “ball” and “doll”, maybe they can’t learn to pronounce words accurately and this interferes with their being able to learn spoken language.

What will happen during the visit or online?

We created a tablet-based video game to help us answer these questions, where children sort pictures into categories. It includes a purely visual version of the task as well as an auditory version, so that we can tell if children have auditory processing issues only or whether their challenges also extend to visual stimuli.

Prospective participants will be assessed in our lab in Charlestown, MA with a variety of measures that document their speech, language, social, and nonverbal IQ skills. They will then be given the tablet game to play. The visits will be broken down into two 2-hour visits. All assessments and game play will be audio-and videotaped for later analysis.

During the visits, children’s parents will also be asked to complete a series of questionnaires that document demographics, developmental history, and current levels of community functioning. Parents will also be asked to participate in an hour-long interview either in person or by zoom, whichever is most convenient for the parent.

For their time, participants will receive $25 for completion of the assessments and will get an additional sum of $50 once they have completed the whole study. Parking compensation will be provided for each visit to our Charlestown lab location.

How will this help families?

In our studies, we are interested in understanding why many children with autism don’t learn to talk on their own. Participation in this study would help our researchers better understand auditory perception in children with autism with the ultimate goal being to improve communication outcomes for children with autism at risk for being minimally verbal.

Six-to-ten year old children with autism spectrum disorders are invited to participate in a fun study, which involves wearing an actigraphy watch for two weeks (to estimate the quality and other characteristics of the child’s sleep) and participation in one MRI session at SDSU Imaging Center. Both children and parents are asked to keep sleep diaries for the two weeks when the child is wearing the actigraphy watch. Finally, children are asked to take part in a brief cognitive testing session. The study aims to understand the links between sleep (problems) and brain development in children with autism.

What are the goals of the study?

This study aims to understand potential mechanisms underlying sleep disturbances in autism.

What will happen during the visit or online?

Children will be asked to wear an actigraphy watch for two weeks, keep sleep diaries, take part in one MRI scan, and complete a brief behavioral assessment session.

How will this help families?

Sleep problems affect 50-80% of individuals with autism and can have cascading effects on development, everyday function, and quality of life. However, the mechanisms underlying sleep disturbances in ASD are not understood. A better insight into the potential mechanisms of sleep disturbances in autism may ultimately help with developing new treatments targeting sleep in children with autism.

Researchers at the Ohio State University are currently looking for children and caregivers to participate in a study examining child report of depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms and social support. If your child is between the ages of 10 and 17 years and has a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, you may be eligible to participate in this study. This study aims to examine self-report measures of internalizing symptoms and social support to improving screening and intervention outcome measures.

What are the goals of the study?

The primary objective is to examine psychometric properties of measures of anxiety, depression and social support in youth with ASD age 10-17. The secondary aim is to examine the relationship between peer, parental, and teacher social support and internalizing disorders in ASD.

What will happen during the visit or online?

The child participant and an accompanying parent will participate in two zoom visits. The duration of the first visit would be about 1 hour. The second visit would occur two weeks after the first and would be about 30 minutes long. The visits would consist of interview and survey questions. Participants would be emailed a $10 Amazon gift card after completion of the first visit, and a $20 gift card after completion of the second.

How will this help families?

Having validated self-report measures on internalizing symptoms and social support in ASD will help us better screen for youth that may need intervention, as well as measure how effective interventions are. As youth with ASD often have a fewer number of friendships, understanding how social support from different people (parents, teachers, friends) relate to mental health symptoms will help inform target areas of intervention.

In this study, we will present a series of validated eye tracking paradigms (e.g., images of faces, videos of social interactions) while we monitor eye movements and physiological arousal. Two research assistants will also collect behavioral reports of ASD and ADHD symptoms from 8-12 years old participants. These data will allow us to examine how and if eye movements, arousal, and questionnaire outcomes differ between children with ASD and ADHD. By combining eye tracking/arousal measures and behavioral assessments, we will then draft a map of how these social cognitive traits manifest in eye movements.

What are the goals of the study?

The primary aim of this study is to test the utility of a social cognitive battery incorporating psychophysiological measures to differentiate between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

What will happen during the visit or online?

A brief telephone screening will be conducted to determine if the child and family are interested in the study. Then, a research team member will schedule a time for the family to come into the lab for approximately 90 minutes. Prior to the visit, parents will be asked to send a copy of a recent diagnostic assessment to confirm diagnosis. During the visit, the participant will come to our lab with their parent. Upon completion of the consent and assent, cognitive screener will be conducted first to the child and then the eye tracking tasks will be administered using the Eyelink 1000. We will ask the child to sit in front of a computer screen, and we will be showing the child some videos and images while the computer will track the child’s physiological response and their eye movements. Parent and caregivers will complete a few questionnaires by the time. Upon completion of all measures, the participant will be given a $20 gift card for their time.

How will this help families?

Families will receive a feedback summary compiling information regarding their responses on questionnaires, including the Conners, SRS, and CBCL. Families will learn about their children’s current condition in behavior performances and cognitive development. If requested by contacting the lab via phone or email (or indicating during the study visit), a 15 minute phone feedback session will be scheduled for the parents with the PI, clinical psychologist, to discuss the results from the questionnaires. This will also offer the PI a chance to address any other questions the parents may have. Participants will also be compensated $20 for their time.

This is a research study to learn more about how children learn to understand language, and the role that caregivers play in this process. By learning more about these processes, we may be able to contribute to a better understanding of language development and impairment and the design of more effective intervention programs and therapies to support language learning. This study will be conducted by Dr. Sudha Arunachalam of the Communicative Sciences and Disorders department at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University, and Dr. Rhiannon Luyster of the Communicative Sciences and Disorders department at Emerson College.

What are the goals of the study?

Learn more about how children learn to understand language, and the role that caregivers play in this process.

What will happen during the visit or online?

If you give permission for your child to participate in this study, your child will be asked to play some games with us in the lab at 665 Broadway in Manhattan, and have a play session at home over web camera on your computer or tablet via Zoom videoconferencing software. You will be with your child the entire time. The in-person study is schedule for 1.5 hours, and the Zoom conferencing part of the study will take approximately 30-45 minutes of you and your child’s time.

The study also involves online surveys that can be completed by you from any location on a desktop, laptop, or tablet computer. These surveys will focus on your child’s demographics, daily activities, and language use, and will take up to 30 minutes to complete.

How will this help families?

We may be able to contribute to a better understanding of language development and impairment and the design of more effective intervention programs and therapies to support language learning.

Dr. Eggebrecht and researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are mapping brain function in children with autism spectrum disorder with diffuse optical tomography.

What are the goals of the study?

Dr. Eggebrecht and researchers at Washington University in St. Louis aim to investigate brain function underlying development in children who have or are at risk for developing Autism Spectrum Disorder.

What will happen during the visit or online?

Children will complete a 1-hour brain imaging scan and developmental testing at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Parents will complete online and phone surveys from home. Families will be compensated $25/hour for their participation.

How will this help families?

We hope that, in the future, society may benefit from study results which increase our understanding of typical and altered development of brain function. We hope that in the future, optical imaging will complement the current brain imaging technologies in the management of a variety of patient populations.

This pediatric autism clinical research study is currently testing the drug, pimavanserin, to see if it is safe and effective in treating irritability and other behaviors in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Study participation will last for up to 14 weeks, with a 6-week treatment period. Children who enroll in this study will receive either the study drug or placebo. A placebo looks like the study drug but has no impact on the person taking it. There will be no cost for the study drug or any study-related procedures. You may be compensated for your time and travel. If your child completes the 6-week treatment period, they may be able to enroll in a 52-week, open-label extension study if they qualify. During this open-label study, there is no placebo. Children who enroll will receive the study drug, pimavanserin.

What are the goals of the study?

The overall goal of this study is to evaluate whether an investigational drug might help relieve irritable behaviors associated with Pediatric Autism Spectrum Disorder that make social interactions and everyday functioning challenging.

What will happen during the visit or online?

Study participation will last for up to 14 weeks, with a 6-week treatment period. Children who enroll in this study will receive either the study drug or placebo. A placebo looks like the study drug but has no impact on the person taking it. There will be no cost for the study drug or any study-related procedures. You may be compensated for your time and travel.
If your child completes the 6-week treatment period, they may be able to enroll in a 52-week, open-label extension study if they qualify. During this open-label study, there is no placebo. Children who enroll will receive the study drug, pimavanserin.

How will this help families?

The evaluation of this investigational drug may help relieve irritable behaviors associated with Pediatric Autism Spectrum Disorder that make social interactions and everyday functioning challenging.

The Wall Lab has already conducted feasibility testing to show that GuessWhat has the potential to impact outcomes on standard behavioral measures. This low-commitment option is a prosocial game, where instead of drawing the player into an immersive game experience, the child actively engages with their social partner in order to perform well in the game. We hope our study testing this game, which leverages machine learning and science-backed treatment approaches, will be an engaging and rewarding experience for families, and that it will provide evidence for therapeutic impact.

What are the goals of the study?

The following study aims to understand the efficacy of the mobile game platform, GuessWhat, in delivering behavioral therapy to children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

What will happen during the visit or online?

If you participate, you will be asked to complete a set of questionnaires that take approximately 1 hour to complete before and 4 weeks after being enrolled in the study. These questionnaires will ask about basic demographics, about your experience as a parents, and about your child’s social communication skills. 50% of participants will be randomly assigned to the treatment group, these participants will use a mobile app for 4 weeks after enrolling. 50% of participants will be in the control group, these participants will continue their normal routine for 4 weeks, before being asked to complete the second set of questionnaires.

How will this help families?

We hope the study game itself will be a fun game for families to play that encourages social communication. We are conducting this study to see if our game-based digital therapeutic can be an effective early intervention option for children with ASD. Results from this study will further understanding with regard to designing digital therapeutics for children with special needs.

Research has shown that certain bacteria in the gut produce substances that may enter the bloodstream and reach the brain, which my contribute to some characteristics often co-occurring with autism, such as irritability. Reducing these substances in the gut before they enter the bloodstream is a potential new approach to treating irritability associated with ASD. AB-2004, with its gut-targeted mechanism of action has the potential to fill this unmet need.

What are the goals of the study?

The study medication AB-2004 is designed to adsorb specific substances produced by bacteria in the gut and reduce their levels circulation in the bloodstream. The purpose of this study is to learn if AB-2004 may help improve irritability compared to placebo by lowering the levels of these substances. The study seeks to determine if there is an effective dose of AB-2004 in 5 to 17 year olds with ASD.

What will happen during the visit or online?

Participants will be examined by the study doctor for any changes to their health, complete a behavioral questionnaire, and participate in blood, urine, and other testing. Blood samples will be collected only 3 times during the study. Participants will take the study medication for 8 weeks and attend 6 clinic visits (lasting 2-3 hours) over 14-16 weeks. Formulated as a tasteless odorless powder, the medication is to be taken 3x/day mixed with any soft food your child may like such as yogurt or apple sauce. You will also be asked to collect urine and stool samples.

How will this help families?

Physicians have reported that irritability impacts a majority of pediatric ASD patients. The presentation of ASD-associated irritability can very with autism severity and age and can be caused by a broad array of different factors including lack of sleep, the inability to communicate pain, and mental health conditions. Currently, there are limited treatment options available for irritability associated with ASD and those that are approved can have significant side effects. AB-2004 offers potential hope of a new therapeutic option for autism-related irritability that might improve patients’ daily lives by avoiding the side effects and risks of currently available medications for irritability of autism.

Children with ASD experience a wide range of outcomes, and not all children respond effectively to behavioral interventions. There is accumulating evidence of tDCS (mild brain stimulation) being effective in treating the comorbidities as well as the core symptoms of ASD. tDCS is most effective when used simultaneously with behavior intervention. In this study, we will isolate the effects of tDCS alone and in combination with ABA on the executive functioning skills and the core symptoms of ASD and monitor the results using an objective neurophysiological test (EEG).

What are the goals of the study?

The goal of this study is to see if transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) when used during ABA therapy improves learning in children with ASD. If your child takes part in the research, s/he will receive tDCS while receiving her/his ABA therapy.

What will happen during the visit or online?

Your child will participate in the study for a total of five months. S/he will receive 20 sessions of tDCS as well as 20 sessions sham (fake) tDCS. Each session is 20-mins long. A resting electroencephalogram (EEG) using a portable headset will be obtained about one time per month. Most study procedures will be done remotely but several in-person visits are required.

How will this help families?

Potential benefits of tDCS are improvements in executive function skills, decrease in the core symptoms of ASD, and/or greater learning acquisition during ABA therapy in study participants. However, there may not be any benefit at all – that is why we are conducting this study.

The genetic changes we study in TIGER3 have been connected with autism and developmental disabilities, but we are just beginning to learn how those changes might affect each person and family differently, and what effects might be shared versus unique across those genetic variants. By learning more about the shared and unique effects of these rare variants, we aim to contribute to (1) better understanding of co-occurring medical and behavioral conditions, and (2) development of individualized supports for affected individuals and their families.

What are the goals of the study?

In the TIGER research study, we are learning more about individuals with genetic events associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), intellectual disability (ID), and/or developmental delay (DD). We hope to better understand and describe how different gene changes influence the development, behavior, and experiences of children and adults. Individuals with these genetic changes may have neurodevelopmental differences that we would like to better understand.

What will happen during the visit or online?

Eligible families participate in a consent phone call, and are then invited to complete a series of video- or phone calls to assess for autism-associated features, adaptive skills, cognitive skills, and medical history. Caregivers are also invited to complete a variety of online questionnaires, including measures of adaptive behavior, treatment history, sleep habits, gastrointestinal symptoms, social-emotional functioning, and executive function. Biospecimen (blood or saliva) collection is completed remotely. Finally, families are offered a feedback session with a clinician and a written report of standardized measures and recommendations.

How will this help families?

Families will be compensated $100 for their participation. Participants may receive feedback about their family’s genetic event(s). Families will also receive written and/or verbal feedback regarding adaptive behavior, social communication skills, language skills, and cognitive skills as available from completed study activities.