Active clinical trials for "Autism Spectrum Disorder"

This study aims to assess the efficacy of Identifor, a strength- based, person-centered, vocational assessment tool to develop a more effective way to identify individual abilities, skills, and interests. Identifor uses computer games specifically designed for young adults with ASD.

The investigators overarching aim is to obtain preliminary data to support a larger grant to validate a novel objective, physiologically-based outcome measure for clinical trials in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) called the cortical metric. Absence of such an outcome measure has greatly hindered the development of treatments for core symptoms of ASD.

Investigators are proposing a 6-week mindfulness and resilience training intervention tailored for caregivers of children with autism. Investigators will assess increases the caregiver's well-being and levels of psychological acceptance of their life situation as it relates to their child with autism. The mindfulness training focuses on self-regulation of emotional responses and acceptance of internal experiences. Self-report measures and qualitative interviews will be administered at baseline and post-intervention. Investigators will compare the active group to a control group of caregivers who are on the waitlist to receive the intervention.

Background: Previous research has shown that individuals with ASD often have difficulties coping with auditory stimuli in the environment. These difficulties can be extremely debilitating, lead to anxiety and disruptive behaviors, and interfere with the ability to process and understand speech. Research Design: In previous research, the investigators have identified a brain marker associated with poor auditory attention that can provide a direct readout of auditory processing issues. The investigators will develop and test a cognitive/behavioral intervention (a tablet-based game app) that is highly engaging and accessible to a wide range of individuals with ASD. The intervention is designed to train adolescents with ASD to adapt and attend to auditory cues. Objectives: To evaluate whether the intervention leads to improvement in auditory attention as assessed by behavior changes over the course of training; to investigate the impact of the intervention on behavioral assessment of problems hearing speech in noisy environments, neural processing of sounds, and changes in parent report on responses to sounds that impact that daily lives of the participants; and finally- to determine which adolescents with ASD benefit the most and least from interventions such as this one. We hypothesize that we can elicit changes in the neural processing of sounds for adolescents with ASD via training in the form of the tablet-based game we are developing. If we are successful, this could lead to other interventions for persons with ASD in the hopes of improving the auditory difficulties they face.

The investigators are evaluating the implementation and the effectiveness of a medical student staffed support program (ASAP) for children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder coming into Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital Emergency Department. The ASAP program involves training and assigning a medical student as an Ambassador to help advocate for the special needs of a child with ASD. This study is designed to compare patient satisfaction of children and families who are assigned an Ambassador to those who are not assigned an Ambassador during their time in the Emergency Department. The secondary objectives are to measure overall medical student satisfaction with the program, medical student career interests before and after participation, and medical student comfort level interacting with children with ASD before and after participation.

The FOOD-AUT pilot study aimed to improve the health status of adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) through a nutritional intervention at canteen service. The researchers adapted the canteen menus to the nutritional and sensory needs of this vulnerable population, reducing their food selectivity and improving their dietary diversity with a positive impact on their health. This project consisted of two phases: first an observational phase (Work Package 1, WP1) and secondarily an interventional phase (Work Package 2, WP2).

New research suggests that about 1 in 8 children may be diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the United States. This could be due to several reasons which remain unknown. This study invites mothers who have given birth to children in the United States to share their experiences with diet and supplementation during pregnancy. The purpose of this study is to understand the role of a mother's diet, social standing, and supplementation with folate or folic acid may have on her child's future development of autism. Comparisons will be made between mothers of children who have a child with an official ASD diagnosis from a clinician to mothers of children without an ASD diagnosis. Findings from this study can be used to help identify risk factors for ASD risk.

Lately, many researchers have found that Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are most likely to have gross motor deficiencies such as lack of coordination in gait and balance. Much has been researched on etiology and motor learning, but only very few researches have examined and analyzed quantitatively gait and balance in ASD. The aim of this research is to analyze quantitatively balance, gait and balance during perturbation in children with ASD and to compare with typically developed children (TD). A group of 20 children diagnosed with ASD and a control group of 20 TD children will be recruited and tested in the laboratory with well-established measures of gait and balance function. They will be instructed to stand as still as possible on a force plate with different task conditions : (1) standing with the eyes open (EO) - standing upright viewing an "X" displayed on a screen 3 meters in front of them; (2) eyes closed (EC) - same as (1) with the eyes closed and covered by blindfolds (i.e. no visual information). (3) Same as 1 standing on foam (i.e., conflicting proprioceptive information). Gait will be measured using the narrow base walk test, modified for clinical use. Participants will be asked to walk within a narrow path 6 meters long . The statistical analysis will include Independent T-tests to compare the ASD and controls with respect to different characteristics. General Linear Model (GLM) will be used by applying a separate model where the dependent variables will be the average values of the postural stability or gait stability parameters (continuous) and the independent variables were categorical by the group and task condition.

This pilot study examines concurrent and predictive relationships between eye tracking and clinical outcomes during a 16-week behavioral intervention (PRT) for children with ASD. Eye tracking will be comprised of both laboratory-based measures (using a commercial eye-tracking system) as well as home-based measures (using tablet-based eye tracking systems). The major goals of this study are both to improve our understanding of the potential role of eye tracking in clinical trials and to advance technologies that may further improve the sensitivity, robustness, accessibility, and ultimate utility of eye tracking methodologies.

The main aim of the present study is to examine eye-tracking based markers for social processing deficits in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). To this end a battery of five eye-tracking paradigms will be administered to young children with ASD and typically developing children. To additionally evaluate the specificity of the eye-tracking markers a group of children with disorders of delayed development other than ASD will be included.