MedTrace Logo

Biomarkers Trajectories of Early Intervention in Siblings of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

NCT05614206 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 80

Last updated 2025-03-14

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

This project deals with essential challenges in the context of Autism Spectrum Disorder benefiting from a prospective design in childhood, early intervention and a cutting-edge experimental techniques. The present study tests the potential effect of early intervention on neural and behavioral responses in toddlers at elevated likelihood of developing autism (siblings of children with autism) who show clinical autistic signs. Four comparison groups were included in the study: (1) toddlers at elevated likelihood of developing autism with clinical autistic signs who receive early intervention from 18 to 24 months (2) toddlers at elevated likelihood of developing autism with clinical autistic signs who do not receive early intervention (3) toddlers at elevated likelihood of developing autism without clinical autistic signs who only received assessment and monitoring, and (4) typically developing toddlers who only received assessment and monitoring.

This study focuses on social and nonsocial sensory integration skills (measured by electroencephalographic and eyetracking recordings) to identify reliable biomarkers for early detection and intervention of autism during a critical period of development.

The characterization of biomarkers will guide the detection of the most vulnerable children that will benefit from early intervention, with the long-term aim of reducing the impact of autism on the National Health System.

Conditions

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Behavioral intervention based on Applied Behavior Analysis principles

Intervention sessions are conducted by licensed therapists with a training in applied behavior analysis or behavior analysts. One-to-one interventions for 3 h/week are carried out over a period of 5 months. The intervention focused on two target symptoms, imitation and joint attention, as two of the pivotal skills in early development. Behavior analytic techniques are used, including discrete trial, shaping for positive reinforcement, systematic prompting and fading procedures, and reinforcement procedures, according to the published manual. Imitation sessions start with imitation recognition and imitation of familiar actions (gestural and object imitation) and end with the imitation of novel actions. Joint attention evolvs from initiating requests (starting with gaze shift with the child looking away from an interesting object to the adult and back) to coordination of gaze shift, vocalization and gestures through reaching, and pointing and showing behaviors.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • IRCCS Eugenio Medea

    lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Months
Max Age
24 Months
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2022-09-26
Primary Completion
2023-09-26
Completion
2024-09-26

Countries

  • Italy

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT05614206 on ClinicalTrials.gov