Active clinical trials for "Developmental Disabilities"

Over 7 million children in the U.S. receive support for a developmental delay or disability (DD). For caregivers of these children, behavior issues that often accompany their child's condition create high levels of stress leading to increased mental and physical health issues and impacts on caregiver-child interactions and family functioning. Although evidence-based practices exist to help caregivers with their child's behavioral development, access to these services is often limited by rigid delivery models requiring in-person visits that can delay support and further increase the burden on families. These barriers are disproportionately higher for families of color and for those in low resource situations: an effect that has been exacerbated by reductions in services due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The overall objective of this project is to develop and implement a telehealth delivery model of rapid-response, evidence-based behavioral support to be provided in conjunction with an existing family navigation program (Undivided) serving parents of children with DD to create a commercially marketable product that will reduce barriers to services in local communities across the country. This project will test the feasibility and acceptability of the Family Advice Text and Telephone (FASTT) support service for caregivers of young children. This Phase 1 application will enable a collaborative process to adapt evidence-based behavioral support to the specific needs of families of children ages birth to 12 with DD and integrate that support within the existing family navigation service. The rationale for the work is that providing effective, personalized support through the widely accessible mediums of text and telephone will get caregivers the help they need when and where they have time to access it and close in time to the behavioral issues they need help with, thus reducing caregiver stress and increasing their sense of competence and positive interactions with their child. Aim 1 determines the feasibility of delivering evidence-based behavioral support to caregivers of children with disabilities using on-demand text messaging. Aim 2 gauges the acceptability of the text-based support service to caregivers. Aim 3 assesses the extent to which text-based support reduces caregiver stress, improves caregiver sense of competence, and builds more positive perceptions of their child's behavior and their relationship with their child.

This study is designed to evaluate a preventive intervention program designed to support families (parents and typically developing adolescent siblings) that include a child with an intellectual and/or developmental disability. Participant families will be randomly assigned to either the treatment condition, in which they will receive psychoeducation and communication coaching over a four-week period, or the control condition, in which they will receive self-study materials. All subjects will participate in a pre-test assessment and three post-test assessments over the course of the year.

Aggressive behaviours are highly prevalent among people with developmental disabilities, both in community and inpatient or residential settings, with adverse consequences for the individuals involved and others. Some predictive factors, particularly impulsivity, are dynamic with neurobiological underpinnings, and as such amenable to change or neuromodulation using non-invasive brain stimulation techniques. With this in mind, we designed an experimental protocol to determine the efficacy of transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) as a non-invasive brain stimulation technique to reduce impulsivity and aggression associated with developmental disability.

Innovative treatments are urgently needed for severe behavioural problems (SBPs) in adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Although a synthetic cannabinoid, nabilone may be a plausible and safe alternative to treat SBP, safety and efficacy of nabilone in people with IDD has never been evaluated. The investigators propose to conduct this first-ever Phase I pre-pilot open-label clinical trial to collect data on the tolerability and safety profile of nabilone in adults with IDD, and explore changes in SBP pre- and post-treatment. The results will inform a next-stage pilot randomized controlled trial, followed by a fully powered trial eventually.

Occupational therapy services will be integrated into an interactive vaulting program which is an equine assisted activity. Children with disabilities ages 5-17 will participate. The objectives of this study are to determine the influence of a collaborative occupational therapy interactive vaulting program on the executive function and social participation in children with disabilities.

The purposes of this study are to compare the impact of a hybrid of telehealth and in-person physical therapy services to in-person services alone on the in-home functional skills of children with moderate to severe disability. This is a mixed methods study.

The goal of this clinical trial is to test a culturally tailored health promotion intervention for children with IDD and their families. First investigators will conduct a single group design pilot study of a health promotion intervention, followed by second, a small-scale randomized control trial (RCT). of the intervention with Latino parents of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in the Chicago, Illinois and Austin, Texas areas. The following research questions will be addressed: Question 1: What is the appropriate content, dosage, and delivery method of the intervention? Question 2: What is the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention? Question 3: Do participants improve between pre and post-test on outcome measures both in the one group design and compared to the control group in the RCT? Parents will receive 10 weekly remote sessions on health promotion content delivered by parent mentors called promotoras. Parents and children will attend 3 multi-family group workshops in-person that will provide demonstrations and interactive activities.

Abnormalities of the lungs are common in newborns and can include aspiration or infectious pneumonia, respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), pulmonary hypertension (PH), congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH), and other abnormalities of lung development. Diagnostic radiography is commonly used in this population to differentiate diagnosis and to assess changes after treatment. While X-ray and CT provide quality imaging, they also expose infants to ionizing radiation. MR imaging offers a safe, non-ionizing alternative. However, imaging lungs via 1H MR is intrinsically difficult due to multiple air-tissue interfaces within the lungs causing local gradients and severe magnetic field susceptibility, which leads to an exceedingly short effective transverse relaxation time (T2*). Additionally, the lungs have low proton density, which along with the short T2* results in low signal to noise ratio, and the physiological motion caused by respiration and cardiac pulsation further reduces lung signal. The development of more powerful hardware, along with faster MRI techniques, has enabled detailed noninvasive 1H MR imaging of pulmonary tissues. Additionally, the development of inhaled hyperpolarized gas MRI has led to breakthroughs in the ability to visualize and quantify regional ventilation and alveolar size.

The aim is to test the effectiveness of lung ultrasound (LUS) in the dynamic assessment of aspiration related to abnormal swallowing in infants and young children with neurological impairment (cerebral palsy/developmental disabilities). Neither standardized measure is available, nor protocols for invasive fibre-optic endoscopic examination of swallowing (FEES) and x-Ray videofluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS) to be used in such population. LUS offers several advantages: time saving for aspiration diagnosis; safeness (neither invasiveness nor radiation); repeatability with different meal consistencies or to monitor interventions efficacy; cost-effectiveness; savings of x-Ray exposition (compared to VFSS). All these advantages may lead infants to improve clinical behavioural and neurological outcomes and reduce stressful interactions with caregivers, and to reduce morbidities and hospitalization costs for respiratory and non-respiratory complications related to swallowing disorders.

This study will involve the development, distribution, and evaluation of "period kits" for pre-menarchal adolescents with intellectual and cognitive disabilities (IDD) (e.g., autism spectrum disorder and Down syndrome) in relieving stress and augmenting sense of preparedness regarding imminent pubertal changes.