Study 1 Replication and Extension of Prior Work

New York University (NYU)

Status: Active, not recruiting

Conditions: Autism Spectrum Disorder

Treatments: Behavioral: Addressed Speech; Behavioral: Overheard Speech

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04166591

280521

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this research is to explore abilities to learn word meanings from overheard conversations in children with ASD (and, as a control, typically developing children).

Specific Aim 1 (Experiment 1): Subaim 1a: Identify child characteristics associated with learning from overhearing. In a prior study, the investigators found that 13 children with ASD were able to learn the meanings of novel words that they heard used in a conversation involving two adults. In the current study, the investigators aim to study a larger sample to identify what child characteristics are associated with good learning in an overhearing situation as compared to a situation in which the child is directly taught the new word. Subaim 1b: Assess retention and generalization of words learned from overhearing. The investigators will re-test children on their knowledge of the word meanings after a 10-minute delay to see if they both retain the word meanings and can generalize the new words to new situations.

Enrollment: 155 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 71 months old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• children with or without a diagnosis of ASD between 18 to 71 months of age

Exclusion criteria

• native language is not English
• born premature (< 36 weeks)
• has uncorrected hearing or vision impairments
• has developmental disorders or medical conditions other than ASD that affect language or cognition (excepting psychiatric conditions often comorbid with ASD such as ADHD)
• has a history of photosensitive epileptic seizures

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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155 participants in 2 patient groups

Addressed

Active Comparator group

Description:

Children participate in an interaction with an experimenter who uses the word to be learned.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Addressed Speech

Overheard

Experimental group

Description:

Children are present in the room while an experimenter uses the word to be learned in an interaction with another experimenter.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Overheard Speech