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Effect of an 8-Week Pickleball Program for Adults With Autism: A Feasibility Trial With a Delayed-Control Design

NCT07432776 · Status: RECRUITING · Phase: EARLY_PHASE1 · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 50

Last updated 2026-02-25

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if an 8-week, community-based pickleball program can improve sensory-motor function and reduce the severity of core autism symptoms in adults ages 18-45 with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who can participate independently without a caregiver.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

1. Does participating in the pickleball program improve sensory-motor function (including visual-motor integration and proprioceptive bias), measured using the HaptiKart task and a pickleball skill assessment?
2. Does participating in the pickleball program reduce core autism symptom severity, measured by the Social Responsiveness Scale, 2nd edition (SRS-2)?

Researchers will compare an early-start pickleball group to a delayed-start control group (who continues usual activities at first) to see if the pickleball program leads to greater improvements in sensory-motor outcomes and ASD symptom severity.

Participants will:

* Complete an in-person baseline visit at a local public library to provide written consent, complete surveys (SRS-2, PROMIS Depression and Sleep measures, and WHOQOL-BREF), and complete a video game-based sensory-motor assessment (HaptiKart).
* Be randomly assigned to either start pickleball classes immediately or after an initial delay period.
* Attend pickleball classes twice per week for 8 weeks (90 minutes per class; 16 sessions total), led by trained instructors at community indoor court facilities.
* Continue their usual activities during periods when they are not assigned to pickleball classes.
* Complete a brief pickleball skill assessment during the intervention period at their first and last class.
* Complete follow-up assessments after each phase of the study to repeat surveys and sensory-motor testing.
* Participants will also wear a small activity monitor (ActiGraph) during pickleball sessions to measure in-class physical activity levels, and complete brief online check-ins about safety/injury and program feedback during the intervention period.

Conditions

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Pickleball Program (Community-Based)

Group-based beginner-friendly pickleball classes delivered in community indoor court facilities. Sessions occur twice per week for 8 weeks (16 sessions total), approximately 90 minutes per session, led by trained instructors.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Penn State University

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Chris Sciammana, MD · Penn State College of Medicine

  • Daniel E Lidstone, Ph.D. · Penn State Harrisburg

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
45 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2026-02-02
Primary Completion
2026-06-15
Completion
2026-07-15

Countries

  • United States

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 NCT07432776 on ClinicalTrials.gov