Adaptive Interventions for Minimally Verbal Children With ASD in the Community

Summary

Adaptive Interventions for Minimally Verbal Children with ASD in the Community, seeks support to construct an adaptive intervention that utilizes two efficacious interventions (JASP-EMT and CORE- DTT) that have shown promise for optimizing the number of unique socially communicative and spontaneously spoken words in minimally verbal children with ASD. The study utilizes a novel sequential multiple assignment-randomized trial to evaluate and construct an optimal adaptive intervention. A total of 192 minimally verbal school aged children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (aged 5 to 8 years of age) will participate across four sites, University of California Los Angeles, University of Rochester, Vanderbilt University and Weill Cornell Medical Center with methodological and statistical support from University of Michigan.

Conditions

• Autism

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

JASP-EMT

JASP-EMT is a developmentally anchored behavioral intervention that assumes that communication develops from social interactions in which specific social engagement strategies, symbolic representations, and early communication forms are modeled and naturally reinforced by adult partner responses to the child. The goal of JASP-EMT is to increase (a) joint engagement, (b) initiating joint attention gestures, (c) social play involving objects and persons, and (d) verbal and nonverbal communication by facilitating meaningful social interactions. The social interaction foundation of JASP-EMT is critical. Modeling and expansions of communicative behaviors and play are used strategically within meaningful social interactions with therapists and caregivers.

BEHAVIORAL

DTT

CORE-DTT is based on behavioral learning theory in which communication and related skills are taught through systematic direct instruction. The goal of CORE-DTT is to help children be successful in learning communication skills by breaking these skills down into small steps, providing systematic direct instruction on each step, and reinforcing children (e.g., with praise or access to preferred items) for demonstrating skills. Imitation and attention skills are a main focus early in intervention. DTT is the most common evidence-based approach for teaching children with ASD, and is often considered the closest to a 'standard of practice' for the field.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

  collaborator NIH

• University of California, Los Angeles

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Connie Kasari, PhD · University of California, Los Angeles

• Ann Kaiser, PhD · Vanderbilt University

• Tristram Smith, PhD · University of Rochester

• Catherine Lord, PhD · Weill Medical College of Cornell University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

54 Months

Max Age

96 Months

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2013-01-31

Primary Completion

2017-06-30

Completion

2017-12-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations