A Center Based Study of Pivotal Response Treatment for Preschoolers With Autism (PRT-C)

Stanford University

Status: Active, not recruiting

Conditions: Autism Spectrum Disorder; Autism

Treatments: Behavioral: Intensive Center-Based Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT-C)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03778827

IRB-49033

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of pivotal response training (PRT) in an intensive center-based environment to treat social communication deficits in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Full description

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of pivotal response training (PRT) in an intensive center-based preschool environment to treat social communication deficits in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study will compare Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) to a delayed treatment group (DTG). PRT is a naturalistic behavioral intervention based on the principles of applied behavior analysis which has shown to be effective in treating the core deficits in children with ASD. The study will compare the combination of parent training with intensive center-based PRT (PRT-C) to a DTG and will include 44 children ages 2 to 3.11 years with ASD and social communication deficits.

Enrollment: 75 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 2 to 3 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) based on clinical interview and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 5th edition (DSM-5) and confirmed using the Autism Diagnostic Interview Revised (ADI-R) and Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, 2nd edition (ADOS-2) or Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS-2); Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 5th edition (DSM-5), and expert clinical opinion
• Boys and girls between 2 years and 3 years and 11 months
• Ability to participate in the testing procedures to the extent that valid standard scores can be obtained
• Stable treatment (e.g., applied behavior analysis (ABA), speech therapy, psychotropic medication(s) or biomedical intervention(s) for at least 1 month prior to baseline measurements with no anticipated changes during study participation
• Developmentally delayed with Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) or Developmental Profile (DP-4) composite score below 85 (1 Standard Deviation below the mean)
• Availability of at least one English-speaking parent who can consistently participate in parent training and research measures.

Exclusion criteria

• Current or lifetime diagnosis of severe psychiatric disorder (e.g., bipolar disorder, etc.)
• Presence of active medical problem (e.g., unstable seizure disorder or heart disease)
• Child primary language other than English
• Previous adequate trial of Pivotal Response Treatment
• More than 15 hours per week of in-home applied behavior analysis (ABA).

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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75 participants in 2 patient groups

Intensive Center-Based Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT-C)

Experimental group

Description:

Intensive Center-Based Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT-C) will consist of a combination of one weekly 60-minute individual parent training session and 12 weekly hours ( 3 hours per day for 4 days per week) with the child in center-based therapy environment for a total of 13 weekly treatment hours.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Intensive Center-Based Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT-C)

Delayed Treatment Group (DTG)

No Intervention group

Description:

Delayed Treatment Group will consist of treatment as usual. At the end of controlled phase, participants in the DTG will be offered PRT-C in a preschool setting in an open-label fashion with a design similar to the double-blind phase.