The Social Validity of The New England Center for Children Core Skill Assessment

The study is conducted by Vy Vo, a Master student at Western New England. She is under the supervision of Dr. Cammarie Johnson. The study examines the social validity of the New England Center Core Skill Assessment.

What are the goals of the study?

The goal of this study is to evaluate the social validity of the core skill assessment currently being used at the New England Center for Children. We aim to identify important skills to teach children with autism and improve the core skill assessment which will be used to develop educational and clinical programs for this population.

What will happen during the visit or online?

Participants will take a survey. The survey includes about 100 multiple-choice questions (Yes, No, No Opinion) and some optional open-response questions. The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete and more time if you provide detailed answers on open-ended questions. The participant will have the opportunity to enter a raffle with a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card.

How will this help families?

The results from this study will be used to develop educational and clinical assessments for this population.

We suspect that some minimally verbal autistic children also have a motor speech disorder called “childhood apraxia of speech” or CAS. If this is so, does CAS treatment, appropriately modified for minimally verbal autistic children, improve their speech? 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. We’re looking for up to 20 children with ASD and CAS, between the ages of 5 and 18, to participate.

What are the goals of the study?

This study therefore aims to test whether treatment for CAS, modified to be embedded in a social, play-based context, improves speech production for children with minimally verbal ASD and CAS.

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.

How will this help families?

Research shows that improved communication abilities are associated with fewer challenging behaviors and better long-term outcomes for children with ASD. Therefore, creating valid and effective treatments to improve their oral communication is extremely important.

The Vision Lab at Old Dominion University is currently looking for volunteers ages 8 – 20 years old with and without autism for an online IRB-approved research study conducted in collaboration with Eastern Virginia Medical School. Children and young adults with autism may make and view facial expressions differently than children and young adults without autism. Video and eye-tracking can be used to study these differences. Participants interact with the researchers on Zoom and play a video game related to facial expressions while a webcam captures their facial expressions and gaze. By studying the video and eye-tracking data, we hope to identify behavioral markers that can help assess and treat children and young adults with autism.

What are the goals of the study?

The purpose of this study is to learn more about facial expressions and gaze behaviors in children and young adults with and without autism. Imaging, such as video and eye-tracking, can be used to study these differences. By studying the imaging data, we hope to identify behavioral markers that can help assess and treat children and young adults with autism.

What will happen during the visit or online?

Participants take part in two Zoom sessions with the researchers. Each Zoom session will take up to 1 hour, including breaks. In the first session, the participant will complete a brief IQ assessment. In the second session, the participant will play a video game related to facial expressions while their webcam records their reactions. Participants will also be asked to complete two take home measures (identifying emotions based on pictures of people’s eyes and a face memory test) and an optional personality questionnaire (completed by the parent for participants under the age of 18).

How will this help families?

We hope that this research will identify behavioral markers that may facilitate new computer-based tools to improve access to care and intervention at home as well as in the clinic.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication and social interaction and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior. Given the lack of specific pharmacological therapy for ASD and the clinical heterogeneity of the disorder, researchers at The Johnson Center and the University of Texas Southwestern are undertaking an ASD biomarker study with the goal of identifying biomarkers for determining ASD risk and developing potential therapeutic interventions.

This study may help with identifying ASD risk in very young children so that interventions and therapies can begin as early as possible – this is critical for ensuring the best developmental outcome. We will use machine learning (AI) to identify therapeutic targets that may help with addressing ASD-specific behaviors.

What are the goals of the study?

The purpose of this study is to identify biomarkers of ASD that correlate with behavioral and developmental phenotypes in order to:
1) develop and test biomarker profiles that form a diagnostics tool;
2) screen and identify children with ASD who might benefit from specific interventions; and 3) develop and test biomarker profiles that inform an instrument for monitoring therapeutic response to medical interventions; and improve the clinical well-being of affected children and increase our knowledge base of this disorder.

What will happen during the visit or online?

Your participation will require two parts:

i) Completion of 4 online questionnaires that can be done from home.

ii) Visiting a Lab Service Center, such as Quest, Lab Corp or CPL, near your home for your child to give a small blood sample.

Compensation of $125 is provided upon completion of the study.

How will this help families?

The biomarkers we identify may assist in the development of therapeutic interventions for targeted treatments for autism.

This study is examining whether a non-invasive device called vagus nerve stimulator (VNS) improves symptoms related to intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) and/or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). VNS involves applying mild electrical stimulation through the skin around the neck. The vagus nerve sends communications between the brain and many parts of the body. It regulates many cognitive, emotional and bodily functions. VNS is FDA-approved for headaches in people 12-years and older.

What are the goals of the study?

The purpose of the study is to examine whether a device called vagus nerve stimulator (VNS) can help with autonomic symptoms commonly seen in developmental disabilities, including autism.

What will happen during the visit or online?

The participant will undergo several behavioral, neurocognitive, and EEG tests and attend regularly scheduled study appointments. The study duration will be between 9-11 months, which includes 1, 3, 6-month follow-up appointments.

How will this help families?

Possible improvements in some symptoms related to developmental disabilities and ASD with the use of VNS.

This study, conducted by researchers at the University of Washington, aims to redesign and pilot test an evidence-based family intervention (RUBI) for autism and behaviors that interfere with quality of life and self-determination in partnership with autistic adults, their caregivers, and their providers to ensure that the redesigned intervention is appropriate and effective for this community. We believe this study is important because autistic adults and their families are currently the most underserved population of autistic individuals. Additionally, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network recently called for increased work to help autistic adults with challenging behaviors and their supporters. We hope that this study can help make progress toward meeting this need for the autistic community.

What are the goals of the study?

In partnership with autistic individuals, their caregivers, and their providers, we hope to redesign an intervention for families of adults with autism and behaviors that interfere with their quality of life. We also hope to test the redesign intervention with ten families to ensure the redesigned intervention is feasible and appropriate for families.

What will happen during the visit or online?

There are two phases to this study:

For Phase 1, we are looking to recruit autistic adults, caregivers of autistic adults, and providers who service autistic adults. Focus group members will be asked to review materials about an established intervention for families of autistic children and answer questions in a 2 hour focus group regarding the applicability of the intervention for adults and suggestions for improving fit with families of autistic adults. Participants in Phase 1 will also be asked to fill out short surveys about the intervention during the focus groups. Participants will be compensated $100 for participating in focus groups.

For Phase 2, we are looking to recruit autistic adults and their caregivers to pilot the redesigned intervention. Families will be asked to attend 8-10 weeks of intervention (1 hour/week) at a time that is convenient for them. They will also be asked to fill out surveys about themselves and the intervention 4 times throughout the intervention. Participants will each be compensated $25 for each set of surveys.

How will this help families?

Currently, autistic adults and their families report having an extremely hard time accessing services. We hope that by redesigning a short term, evidence-based intervention for autistic adults with behaviors that interfere with their quality of life and their families, we can help expand access to this service and give autistic adults and their families tools to improve self-determination and quality of life.

We are the Psychology of Language Lab at Princeton University, and we are studying how autistic children learn language. We will send families videos of picture books being read aloud, and will study whether different types of picture books can help autistic children learn new words. Families who participate in the study can earn up to $163.

What are the goals of the study?

The goal of this study is to learn more about why some autistic children have difficulty learning language, and to test a teaching method we think may help children learn new words more easily.

What will happen during the visit or online?

If you choose to participate in this study, we will send your family eight short videos of picture books being read aloud. We will also meet with you and your child on Zoom at the beginning and end of the study, during which we will show your child some pictures of objects and ask them to find objects that match. Finally, we will send you a questionnaire to fill out at the beginning and end of the study, and follow up with you three months after the end of the study to see how much your answers change.

How will this help families?

This study will help researchers develop new methods of teaching language to autistic children.

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.

The purpose of the current study is to investigate whether adults with a diagnosis of autism tend to display more notable deficits in certain areas of competency measurement than others as measured by their performance on the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool-Criminal Adjudication (MacCAT-CA) and the Judgment In Legal Contexts (JILC) Instrument, as well as look at the impact that theory of mind (as measured by the A-ToM [Adult-Theory of Mind] instrument) and measured intelligence (derived from previous IQ testing) may have on competence-related abilities. A trained doctoral student will facilitate study session procedures via Zoom. This study seeks to contribute to the scarce research on the unique effects of autism on competence-related abilities.

What are the goals of the study?

The researcher will explore whether this population displays a notable pattern in scores on the various facets of competency to stand trial. Deficits in theory of mind will be explored in terms of their relation to performance on competency measures. This information will collectively help inform the relationship between autism and competency to stand trial and perhaps be used to inform improved competency evaluations and procedures for this population in the future.

What will happen during the visit or online?

Results of previous IQ testing will be requested directly from the participant (no contact with their medical providers). If the participant is unable/unwilling to obtain and share this information with the researcher, the abbreviated version of the WASI-II will be administered to obtain an estimate of their IQ. On Zoom, participants will be administered the A-ToM, MacCAT-CA, and JILC. The A-ToM requires participants to view a series of videos and provide verbal responses to a series of prompts. The MacCAT-CA and JILC are both interview-style measures.

How will this help families?

The information collected in this study will help inform the relationship between autism and competency to stand trial and perhaps be used to inform improved competency evaluations and procedures for this population in the future.

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Researchers at Seattle Children’s are looking for caregivers of 2 to 12 year old children without autism spectrum disorder or challenging behaviors (e.g., aggression, destruction) that require intervention to take part in an online survey study and an optional in-person EEG visit. Parents will be compensated with a $50 gift card for completing the questionnaires and a $50 gift card for completing the in-person visit.

What are the goals of the study?

The goal of this study is to study parent and child problem-solving and emotions in an intervention that includes parents.

What will happen during the visit or online?

Parents will complete an online survey (about 30 minutes) about their and their child’s problem-solving and emotions and in a one-time in-person EEG and cognitive visit that includes problem-solving and other tasks.

How will this help families?

The study is being done to learn more about parents’ emotion and mental processes.

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.