Active clinical trials for "Autism Spectrum Disorder"

The aim is to evaluate the effects of a dog-assisted therapy program on physical function and communication in a sample comprised of 24 adults with autism spectrum disorder. The sample will be divided into 2 groups, a control group and an experimental group. Changes after 10 weeks (20 sessions) will be compared between-groups.

The project is aligned with one of the overall: To promote social inclusion and equal opportunities, encouraging participation in sport and physical activity. With this goal in mind, the following specific objectives for this project were established: To develop an adapted judo programme for children with ASD. To demonstrate the impact of the participation in adapted judo on the quality of life of people with ASD. To validate instruments for use among the population with ASD. To establish a set of coherent pedagogical principles that can be applied throughout the EU to ensure the effectiveness of adapted judo programmes for children with ASD. To establish a coherent set of pedagogical principles to promote good habits in the participation in judo by children with ASD. To consolidate and disseminate a systematic approach to adapted judo participation and competition for people with ASD around the EU. Our hypothesis is that the participants will show improved behaviour after the adapted judo intervention

Background (brief): The global burden of depression accounts for 2.5% of global DALYs, and in South Asia the estimate is 13.3 % of DALYs per 100,000 populations. Mothers of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have reported higher level of depression than mothers of children with other developmental disorder and the prevalence of ASD is high in Asian countries. In Bangladesh 16% of adults suffer from depression and a recent study conducted in Bangladesh has documented a high prevalence of depression among mothers of children with ASD (45%). Mothers are the life time care givers of children with ASD, and a high burden of depression is likely negatively impact on the ability of the mothers to provide care to children at home. Mental health is not addressed in Bangladesh and there is scarcity of qualified providers. Objectives: The investigators propose to pilot the feasibility of a package intervention including implementation of mental health care and home based training program for the mothers of children with ASD integrated in the regular activities of the special schools that offer ASD care in Dhaka city in Bangladesh. Methods: The study will be conducted in 2 selected special schools over 15 months. In the first stage, the investigators will set up the study in two schools and identify various stakeholders for qualitative assessment of the barriers of implementing the intervention at the institutional level, individual level, family level, provider level, policy maker level and at the level of the state. Research staff will identify mothers 18 years of age or older who has a child with ASD between 3 and 17 years of age enrolled in the school. Following consent, data collector will obtain data and assess current major depressive episode (MDE) of the eligible mothers following a standard diagnostic tool (SCID-I). All mothers diagnosed as having MDE will be invited to participate in the intervention (intervention mothers) and the investigators will assess the performances in children with ASD by applying ASD Diagnostic Check-list (ADCL). In the second stage, investigators will implement interventions over 4-6 months, including (a) implementing mental health care services at the selected schools targeting the intervention mothers, and (b) organizing training sessions of the intervention mothers for supporting child care at home for enhancing child performances. Every month a psychiatrist will visit each school for providing necessary advice and treatment to the intervention mothers or suggest referral to hospital care, if necessary. One special educator will be deployed at each school who will organize structured training sessions for educating the intervention mothers by using BCC materials developed and validated by icddr,b in the local setting. The special educators will conduct multiple group sessions including 5-8 mothers in each group for covering the 6 modules over 2 weeks time, and follow up intervention mothers at home every month for conducting refresher's training, documenting the need of additional training supports, and linking mother with an ASD expert for helping mothers taking a decision. In stage 3, investigators will conduct post intervention qualitative survey with various stakeholders who would be involved with implementing the intervention and participated in the baseline qualitative survey. End line assessment will be conducted of current major depressive episode (MDE) among all mothers and assess the performance of the children of intervention mothers in order to assess the impact of the training at home. Outcome measures/variables: The primary outcome of the study is to assess the feasibility of institutionalizing the combined intervention of mental health care supports and the home based training program of the mothers who would be diagnosed as having major current major depressive episode. The primary outcome will be assessed by obtaining the perspectives of various stakeholders. The following parameters will be assessed for measuring feasibility of the proposed intervention. Acceptability, Adaptability, Demands, Practicality, Implementation, Integration The secondary outcomes will include estimating the impact of the combined interventions on the prevalence rate of maternal depression (MDE), individual performances of children, and cost of intervention. Adaptation of the proposed strategy, if feasible will help the mothers of children with ASD become skilled workforces for filling in the gap of the special educators in resource poor settings, and extension of these services to more children with ASD.

This study aims to investigate the efficacy of guided self-help Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) for adults who have a diagnosis for Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and are experiencing psychological distress (stress, anxiety or depression). This is a repeated measures design, using a single case experimental design (SCED) over a period of fourteen weeks. Each participant (n=8) with be asked to complete weekly measures and shortened measures every three days, while they read an ACT guided self-help bibliotherapy. For more information about the measures, please see outcome measure section. The ACT guided bibliotherapy will be administered to each participant on a weekly basis, over eight weeks. Participants will be asked to complete outcome measures at two week and at four weeks post intervention.

This study will investigate the acceptability and preliminary effectiveness of training parents to use a structured communication intervention that is aimed towards helping children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This intervention has demonstrated benefits for non-autistic children in known areas of difficulty found with autistic individuals. There are currently few evidence-based interventions for school-aged children with ASD who have no other language or intellectual disabilities and are educated in mainstream schools. We will evaluate the benefits of training parents to use a freely available communication technique designed to tackle underlying psychological processes crucial to later development.

To address developmental service navigation by families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) an innovative paper-based tracking tool called the Pediatric Developmental Passport (Passport) was created by Dr. Elizabeth Young at St. Michael's Hospital. The Passport was adapted through a partnership between St. Michael's hospital and Autism Films Inc. into a mobile application called My Autism Passport (MAP). MAP allows families to learn about, and manage publicly-funded ASD services from their mobile device. Users can locate resources within their region, and track their progress in accessing services across multiple service agencies. The user can also set reminders on MAP which will be synced with their calendars, record notes, and read short summaries of the services offered by regional agencies. In this way, the application keeps families engaged, and allows them to take control of their child's care. The feasibility of the MAP mobile application will be assessed by clinicians and end users. Clinicians from five developmental diagnostic organizations that have more than one year of experience diagnosing and providing follow up care to children with ASD will be informed of the study and invited to participate in recruitment in their respective practices. Caregivers of a child that is given a new diagnosis of ASD will be invited to participate in the study and be randomized to the control group or non control group and may have access to the application for 18 months. During the 18 month period, data on how caregivers are using the app will be collected. At 6, 12 and 18 months, caregivers will be invited to participate in questionnaires on number of services accessed, parent stress levels and self-efficacy levels. Questionnaires and interviews will be quantitatively analyzed for differences between groups, and findings will be used to improve the app prior to a larger prospective clinical trial.

Participation in structured activities and physical activity (PA) have been linked to several indicators of positive development such as self-esteem and psychological health as well as greater academic outcomes and lower school drop-out rates. Despite this, 77% of boys and 80% of girls aged 5-15 in the UK also fall below the national physical activity guidelines of 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per day. Children with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) may be at particular risk for inactivity as they are more likely to experience barriers to participation in these types of activities and motor skills impairments, common in people with ASC, can further limit participation in PA. Studies that have attempted to increase PA in young people with autism have shown reduction in problem behaviours such as inattention and aggression and increase in positive behaviours such as sleep, improvements in quality of life, academic performance and physical competence, and reductions in stress. The primary research aim is to investigate whether participation in a 10-week group based activity programme affects social skills and problem behaviours in CYP with ASC. It is hypothesised that children and young people (CYP) participating in the 10-week group based activity programme will show greater improvements in social skills and a greater reduction in problem behaviours than CYP not participating in the 10-week activity programme (control condition). Participants will be assigned to either the experimental condition (10-week activity programme) or waitlist control group. Participants in the 10-week activity programme will participate in group based activities including; 'pick up and play' sessions, swimming sessions and sport specific sessions coached by local sports teams. The 10-week activity programme consists of 1, 50 minute session per week for 10-weeks. Questionnaire data will be collected pre and post intervention to see if there are any differences in social skills and problem behaviour scores between the experimental and control group for CYP with ASC.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the correlation and the causality direction between mastering linguistic tests and second-order reasoning tasks in the autistic population. Linguistic tests include two types of tasks: 1. Mastery of multiple embeddings or recursion and 2. Mastery of dialogue particles. Second-order tests include standard false-belief tasks.

This is a prospective, longitudinal, exploratory, open study with a 6-month follow-up period to explore via a specific Smartphone© application the evolution of a child's behavior over 6 months and the (psychological and social) effects of these changes on the family.

Participation in structured activities and physical activity (PA) have been linked to several indicators of positive development such as self-esteem and psychological health as well as greater academic outcomes and lower school drop-out rates. Despite this, 77% of boys and 80% of girls aged 5-15 in the UK also fall below the national physical activity guidelines of 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per day. Children with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) may be at particular risk for inactivity as they are more likely to experience barriers to participation in these types of activities and motor skills impairments, common in people with ASC, can further limit participation in PA. Studies that have attempted to increase PA in young people with autism have shown reduction in problem behaviours such as inattention and aggression and increase in positive behaviours such as sleep, improvements in quality of life, academic performance and physical competence, and reductions in stress. The primary research aim is to investigate whether participation in a 8-week group based activity programme affects social skills and problem behaviours in CYP with ASC.