Active clinical trials for "Child Development Disorders, Pervasive"

Clinical trial without drug, randomized: Comparison of a specific and integrative clinical protocol for young adults with autism to usual treatment. It will include both low and high-functioning participants.

The aim of this study is to determine whether the use of virtual reality glasses showing an immersive video simulation of the dental visit will help decrease anxiety at future appointments by decreasing the element of surprise and increasing the patient's familiarity and comfort level with a specific dental practice environment.

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.

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 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.

The purpose of the JEMImE project is to create a serious game to help children with Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) develop facial and vocal emotions in context. The objective of this study is to record facial and vocal emotional productions in children with autism and PDD in order to create an algorithm for the recognition of facial emotional expressions implemented in the serious game JEMImE.

Use of the software could allow learning of reading code in subjects with ASD through the design of serious games for educational and therapeutic purposes. This SEMATIC software could improve communication and could be integrated into medical management (speech therapy and neuropsychological). The benefit of an action research will enable training professionals to autism, cognitive characteristics of autism and the use of IT support for this population.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder and is characterized by functional impairment in social communication, restricted interests, and repetitive behaviors.The children with ASD has been shown different drug responses from the normal population of children. The children with ASD maybe more prone to elevate anxiety and the difficult of sedation during MRI scanning.The purpose of this investigation was to compare the effectiveness of dexmedetomidine sedation in children with and without ASD undergoing MRI scanning.