Social and Communication Outcomes for Young Children With Autism

Summary

The goal of this project is to test an intervention program for caregivers and their young children with autism that is focused on improving social communication. This study specifically targets underserved populations, specifically children from low SES and racial/ethnic minority families. Participants will include 40 children (aged 24 months to 60 months) and their caregivers who will be randomized (as if by flipping a coin) to one of the two treatments: Parent education sessions for two hours a week for 12 weeks or parent-child intervention sessions with the child for one hour, twice a week for 12 weeks. Young children with autism have difficulty with engaging in joint attention with others (e.g. pointing, showing. Joint attention skills are important to later development of language. Therefore, targeting this problem in young children may result in better language outcomes for these children.

In order to examine the effects of the interventions, all participants will be complete cognitive, language, communication and play-based assessments prior to treatment, at the end of the first 12 weeks of the intervention, and post-treatment immediately following the intervention (approximately 2.5 to 3 hours each).

Conditions

• Autism Spectrum Disorder

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Joint Attention Intervention

Intervention in both conditions occurs once a week for 2 hours. Participants will be randomized to 1 of 2 interventions : (1) Caregiver Mediated Model (CMM):focuses on joint attention/engagement and involves individual meetings with the parents and children at their homes. Parents will be specifically taught techniques for altering the home environment and ways to enhance children's language, social, and play development. Parents will given guided practice (input/ coaching from the interventionist) as they implement these techniques with their child. (2) Caregiver Education Model (CEM): focuses on teaching parents information about autism, behavior modification, and community services. Parents will receive information on child development each week, and will be able to ask questions and discuss the information. Parents meet in a group (without their children) in a community-based setting to receive the intervention.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of California, Los Angeles

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Washington

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Michigan

  collaborator OTHER

• Florida State University

  collaborator OTHER

• Johns Hopkins University

  collaborator OTHER

• Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)

  lead FED

Principal Investigators

• Connie Kasari, Ph.D. · University of California, Los Angeles

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

24 Months

Max Age

60 Months

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2009-04-30

Primary Completion

2011-12-31

Completion

2011-12-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations