Pilot Evaluation of a New Computerized Test for Pragmatic Inferences in Children with ASD (TIPI)

Hôpital le Vinatier

Status: Completed

Conditions: Autism Spectrum Disorder

Treatments: Other: computerized test for pragmatic inferences

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04245306

2019-A01721-56

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study aims to evaluate the relevance of a new computerized test for pragmatic inferences (TIPi) in children aged 8 to 12 YO, presenting a typical development, autism spectrum disorders, another neurodevelopmental condition and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Full description

By virtue of pragmatic inference-making, a listener can go above and beyond the linguistic meaning of the speaker's utterance in order to understand what the speaker intended to communicate. Such inferences allow the listener to understand inter alia irony, metaphor, indirect requests, scalar and ad-hoc implicatures. Autistic individuals have typically been described, by clinicians and language specialists, as tending towards having a literal understanding of language and as being deficient with respect to understanding a speaker's intended meaning, and these difficulties have a major impact on quality of life and social participation. Therefore, assessing these abilities seems essential, both for diagnosis purpose and to draw a clear description of an individual's functioning profile. Yet, no tool is available for children aged 8 to 12 in French. A new test named TIPi has been developed to resolve this issue. This new test is computerized and runs in a touch pad. The main goal of the present study is to evaluate the ability of the TIPi to discriminate autism spectrum disorders (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) children from typically developing (TD) children. Secondary goals are (i) to measure the typical development of these abilities in TD children in this age range, (ii) to assess the developmental link these skills might have with other cognitive of language abilities (mentalizing, cognitive flexibility, core language skills, central coherence), and (iii) to compare the pragmatic profile of ASD children with another neurodevelopmental condition: developmental language disorder, in order to test the relevance of this test for differential diagnosis.

Enrollment: 232 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 8 to 12 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. Age between 8 and 12 years old
2. Native French speaker
3. Informed consent of the parents and children
4. [For ASD group] Diagnosis of ASD provided by a trained and entitled clinician
5. [For DLD group] Diagnosis of DLD provided by a trained and entitled clinician
6. [For ASD and DLD groups] IQ above 70
7. Intellectual efficiency within the norm (ITQ > 70), confirmed by objective results (psychometrics) in the participant's file, or collected if necessary within the framework of this study (using the WISC V);
8. Medical diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) by a competent professional, confirmed by a parental assessment (ADHD-RS-IV)

Exclusion criteria

1. Uncorrected visual impairment
2. Uncorrected auditory impairment
3. Motor disability preventing the use of a touch pad
4. [For the TD group] Diagnosis of any neurodevelopmental or psychiatric condition
5. [For ASD group] Diagnosis of language disorder of attention disorder (ADHD)
6. [For DLD group] Diagnosis of ASD or ADHD
7. [For ADHD group] Diagnosis of ASD or DLD

Trial design

Primary purpose: Diagnostic

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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232 participants in 4 patient groups

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Experimental group

Description:

A group of 25 children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD)

Treatment:

Other: computerized test for pragmatic inferences

Typically Developing children

Active Comparator group

Description:

A larger group of 150 typically developing children (TD)

Treatment:

Other: computerized test for pragmatic inferences

Children with Developmental Language Disorders

Experimental group

Description:

A group of 25 children with developmental language disorders (DLD)

Treatment:

Other: computerized test for pragmatic inferences

children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD group)

Experimental group

Description:

25 children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD group)

Treatment:

Other: computerized test for pragmatic inferences