Active clinical trials for "Autistic Disorder"

Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAI) can increase social behavior in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), although the mechanism by which this occurs remains elusive. The central goal of this project is to identify the mechanisms involved in the social-enhancing effect of dogs on children with ASD. The investigators will incorporate therapy dogs into an established evidence-based, group social skills instruction program for children with ASD, using a controlled experimental design with between- and within- subject comparisons and physiological and behavioral outcome measures. The investigators predict therapy dogs to have a specific and measurable effect on children's social behavior and that this effect is gained through identifiable mechanisms. Specifically, the investigators hypothesize that (1) an integration of therapy dogs into group social skills instruction will result in reduced stress and improved social behavior compare to traditional group instruction; (2) repeated exposure to the therapy dog across sessions will increase a child's preference for spending time with the dog and will increase the social-enhancing effects of the dog; and (3) that the therapists will experience less stress, engage in more social and affiliative behavior towards the children, and deliver higher quality instruction during sessions that include dogs. The investigators will enroll 72 children with ASD into group social skills instruction classes taught by 6 therapists. Each child will experience a 10-week, 8-student class in which either (a) the first 5 weeks will involve a therapy dog, (b) the last 5 weeks will involve the therapy dog, or (c) the class will not involve a therapy dog. The therapists will teach the courses repeatedly across the three cycles of the program with different children, rotating through each condition. Social behavior, stress behavior, heart rate, electrodermal activity, and salivary cortisol concentrations of children and therapists will be assessed and compared across conditions. The direction of the children's social behavior towards the dog and peers and the changes in quality of instruction of therapists during dog sessions compared to no-dog sessions will also be assessed. The outcomes of this research will lead to significant enhancements in current interventions for individuals with ASD.

The project highlights one of the primary areas of research within the KIDDRC- language and communication. The focus is on language and communication in children with autism and minimal verbal skills (less than 20 spoken words). Remaining nonverbal past the age of 5 years has been considered a poor prognostic indicator for future language developments, yet few interventions have been developed to address this problem. The Specific Aims for this project are (1) to further investigate a multimodal intervention for school-age children with minimal verbal skills-defined as less than 20 words spontaneously spoken, signed, or selected via graphic symbol selection-and (2) to identify significant covariates associated with differential responding to the intervention. The research addresses an unmet need to promote spoken word production in children who remain essentially nonverbal well past the ages associated with speech acquisition. The project is also innovative because: a) it investigates a multimodal intervention based on principles of phonotactic probability and neighborhood density in combination with augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), and b) it investigates novel predictors of treatment response that are obtained through cutting-edge technologies. This intervention will have better success than past interventions because the intervention will provide increased input through speech, digitized speech and visual images and additional speech sound practice for words that are comprised of high frequency sounds in the child's repertoire. Extant speech sounds in each participant's repertoire will be identified using LENA™ digitized recordings. Vocabulary words will then be selected based on a child's speech sound repertoire and principles of word learning-words with high probability speech sound sequences will be selected and taught with either multimodal intervention or a treatment as usual condition. Responses to these interventions will be evaluated using a Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trials (SMART) design. Different outcomes may be associated with individual and environmental predictors identified in our previous research. Individual predictors include verbal comprehension, imitation skills, adaptive behavior, nonverbal speech sound repertoire, and communication complexity. Communication complexity will be measured with the Communication Complexity Scale (CCS), developed by the Principal Investigator. Environmental predictors include language input to the child as measured with LENA™ recording devices. Results will determine if the multimodal intervention is more successful than treatment as usual for teaching word productions.

To test efficacy and safety of a novel nasal spray of oxytocin on social deifies in autism spectrum disorder, and To compare effect sizes of different doses

This study evaluates the effects of essential oils on anxiety scores among children who have an autism spectrum disorder. One third of the children will receive a control blend of oils, one third of the children will receive a test blend of oils, and the other third will receive a second test blend of oils.

This study is a clinical trial aims investigate the effects of neurostimulation in the treatment of children with mild ASD, specifically the action of tDCS on social cognition skills. tDCS can modulate neuronal activity in patients with ASD. Specifically, this technique has shown to be a promising tool in the promotion of social neuroplasticity, aiming at more adaptive social interactions. In this sense, it was hypothesized that participants treated with active tDCS will present better performance in social cognition tests than those submitted to sessions with simulated current.

This study will examine if a virtual delivery of a group Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) program, specifically using "Facing Your Fears" (FYF) curriculum, is helpful in improving anxiety symptoms for children and youth with ASD. This study will adapt the FYF program for virtual delivery using a platform called "Zoom for Healthcare" and examine its effectiveness.

Manitoba parents of preschool children newly diagnosed with Autism must wait up to a year to receive government funded services for their child. During this delay parents need support and training to promote their child's development. The purpose of this research is to develop and evaluate an on-line, parent training and support program that will assist parents during this time. It is predicted that if parents receive on-line training and support they will increase their parenting knowledge and skills, reduce their stress, and create better outcomes for their child, in comparison to parents who do not receive the training. The experimental study (n=60) will use a randomized, masked, waitlist control design that compares a treatment group to a control group. Descriptive statistics will be used to describe differences between groups, ANCOVA's to test for differences between groups, and Pearson correlations to describe the relationship between parent stress and outcomes.

BACKGRUOUND: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a common condition. The etiology of ASD remains unknown. Recent studies suggest a link between elimination diets and severity of autistic symptoms. The possible effects of a gluten-free diet (GFD) on symptoms remain unknown. AIM: The aim of the study is to evaluate the impact of gluten challenge on the autistic symptoms in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and on a gluten-free diet (GFD) in comparison to individuals continuing GFD. METHODS: 70 children with ASD aged 3-5 and 11/12 remaining on GFD for at least 8 weeks will be randomly assigned to gluten-free and gluten-challenge diet.

Autism, ranked among the '' pervasive developmental disorders' (ASD), is characterized by disturbances in the areas of reciprocal social interaction, communication and behavior, interests and activities restricted, repetitive. Various studies indicate that autistic disorder is subjected to a genetic predisposition, most likely polygenic and heterogeneous. However, no major gene responsible for this disorder has yet been identified. Given the link between the Fragile X syndrome (the most common form of mental retardation (MR) hereditary) and autistic behavior, it seems interesting to look, also, a possible link to the molecular level. Among the proteins interacting with FMRP (absent protein in fragile X patients), the investigators were interested to CYFIP1, protein encoded by the gene CYFIP1 appears to be a good candidate gene involved in the RM and autism by its chromosomal position and function. As FMR1, CYFIP1 is expressed in the brain cortex, hippocampus and Purkinje cells of the cerebellum. This protein co-localizes and interacts with Rac and FMRP, which are both involved in neurogenesis and cognitive development. In humans, the gene encoding CYFIP1 is located in the 15q11-q13. Now, the only autosomal abnormalities most frequently observed in autism are those involving the proximal 15q region, including duplications or 15q11-q13 triplications interstitial, of maternal origin. These data suggest that an / or more autism genes responsible are probably present in the 15q11-q13 chromosomal region, although no gene has yet been identified. Thus, the study of the role of CYFIP1 gene in patients with autism spectrum disorders would most likely contributory. The investigators wish to study the involvement of the 15q11-q13 chromosomal region and CYFIP1 gene in autistic disorder in a hundred patients from the Autism Resource Centre (ARC) Nice PACA antenna, over a two year period. The diagnosis and assessment report of children likely to be included in this study will be conducted at ARC Nice. Balance sheets are made according to the recommendations of the High Authority of Health for diagnosis of infantile autism and PDD. These children are then sent to the Genetic Consultation Nice Hospital where an analysis of the background and a specific morphological examination will be realized..

Music therapy is an established form of creative art therapy. By using music as a specific medium of communication, expression and adapting it to the individual resources and abilities of the patient, music therapy can be beneficial in activating and supporting mental and psycho-physical recover .