Active clinical trials for "Developmental Disabilities"

The purpose of this study is to identify improvement in behavioral and social function and changes in the brain following Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) for Adolescents in highly verbal adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

The purpose of this study is to work with a community engagement group to develop and pilot a protocol for a virtual reality exergaming program for children with special needs at a high school.

People with IDD (intellectual and developmental disability) have very high rates of obesity and die prematurely from cardiometabolic disease. While antipsychotics contribute to this problem, their use is necessary and appropriate in a significant subgroup of individuals with IDD. Exercise and diet interventions have limitations and may not be sufficient, requiring effective adjunctive pharmacological approaches to target obesity and related comorbidities in IDD. However, persons with IDD treated with antipsychotics are systematically excluded from clinical trials hindering development of evidence to help guide safe and effective treatment of these comorbidities. Moreover, evidence from other disorders cannot be extrapolated to IDD given inherent biological differences between disorders. This trial will address the identified gaps, which extend beyond cardiovascular morbidity and negatively impact psychosocial outcomes, in a hugely underserviced population.This is the the first RCT (randomized control trial) to examine the efficacy of metformin in overweight or obese adults with IDD who have experienced antipsychotic-induced weight gain. By generating efficacy data for a very accessible and scalable intervention, allows for guideline and implementation strategies to address a recalcitrant health problem.

Children with, or at elevated risk for, brain-based developmental disabilities can experience lifelong consequences and challenges throughout their development. In particular, preschool years (3-6 years of age) can be stressful as families wait to get services and care for their child. Nationally and internationally, service delivery models during this critical period are not standardized, and differ within and across provinces and across patient conditions, leading to long wait times, service gaps and duplications. This study has two main hypotheses: A standardized approach to "coaching" (i.e. coach + online education tools + peer support network) is feasible in the real-life context, and acceptable to caregivers and can be delivered across multiple sites in urban/suburban/rural settings. A standardized approach to "coaching" enhances parental health (parents' empowerment and sense of competence, quality of life, and minimizes parenting stress), family health care experience (care coordination experience and process of care) at similar health care cost (economic analysis), when compared to usual and locally available care.

This R21 application will provide a multidisciplinary One Health approach to DAID physical activity intervention for adolescents with developmental disabilities and their family dog. The novel intervention approach includes the use of the family dog in an established dog training protocol, focused on physical activity and aimed at improving physical activity, quality of life and social wellbeing for children with and without developmental disabilities. Recent pilot work has revealed physical and social-emotional improvements in children with developmental disabilities following an animal assisted intervention. There has been relatively limited research focused on the physical activity of adolescents with developmental disabilities and there remains a critical need to develop strategies that will encourage an active lifestyle for adolescents with and without developmental disabilities. Animal assisted therapy has known positive impacts on morale and is also known to reduce depressive psychological symptoms for children and adults. Yet, traditional 'service dogs' are prohibitively expensive for many families. Dog ownership alone is known to improve health-related physical activity. Thus, a critical need exists to create physical activity interventions that are easily accessible and provide manageable home-based physical activity adherence, but that are less expensive than traditional service dogs. To achieve these goals the investigators of this project have developed the following specific aims: 1) To develop and evaluate a novel DAID dog training program to promote physical activity in children with and without developmental disabilities; 2) To determine what impact participation in a DAID dog-training program has on the child's quality of life, feelings of social wellbeing and the child-dog relationship. The long term goal of this research is to improve the lives of adolescents with and without developmental disabilities. This research supports the One Health initiative and brings together aspects of improving health related to human and animal development.

The purpose of this research use only (RUO) study is to detect genomic structural variants (SVs) in human DNA by Optical Genome Mapping (OGM) using the Bionano Genomics Saphyr system. SVs are a type of genetic alternation that includes deletions, duplications, and both balanced and unbalanced rearrangements (ex: inversions or translocations), as well as specific repeat expansions and contractions. The results of OGM analysis will be compared to prior clinical genetic test results to determine how OGM compares to current standard of care (SOC) clinical test methods such as chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA), karyotyping, Southern blot analysis, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and/or next generation sequencing (NGS), etc.

The objective of this study is to develop an automated, precise, quantitative assay for detecting atypical motor behavior and development in infants using data from wearable sensors and video recordings.

A Longitudinal Study of Function and Participation in Life Activities of Patients with Developmental Disabilities

Background: Small-Fiber-Neuropathy describes the degeneration of mildly or unmyelinated nerve fibers and causes neuropathic pain and autonomic dysfunction. Gold standard for the diagnosis is a small skin punch biopsy from the lower leg and the histological quantification of the intraepidermal nerve fiber density (IENFD). In children, the normal IENFD has not been systematically assessed and normal reference values are needed. In Parkinson´s disease, the neurodegeneration also affects the peripheral nerves and SFN is present already in the early stages. Whether neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) in childhood are likewise associated with SFN is largely unknown. The IENFD is age-dependent and declines with age. Aims: In this study, we are establishing the reference values for the physiological IENFD in children from 0-18 years. Moreover, we are investigating if children with NDDs have a reduced IENFD and if SNF is a clinically relevant cause of pain and autonomic dysfunction.

Patients with neurodevelopmental diseases and their families need to identify the genetic cause of the disease to allow for recognition of the disability, genetic counseling, and possible hope for participation in therapeutic research studies. Access to high-throughput genomic exome or genome analysis allows the identification of a genetic cause for approximately half of the patients. However, families with no result or with a variant of unknown significance after these tests may find themselves in a new diagnostic impasse. The high-throughput sequencing used today generates sequences of the order of 100 base pairs (so-called "short read" sequencing). This allows an analysis of about 90% of the genome. However, many regions are not accessible in regions of interest for the genetic diagnosis of rare diseases. Long fragment sequencing generates sequences that are about 20 times larger and its use has recently made it possible to sequence the human genome almost completely (https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abj6987). The main contribution lies in the analysis of complex regions of the genome such as segmental duplications or centromeric regions. It is likely that this technology increases the sensitivity of detection of genetic variants in patients with genetic diseases. Its contribution should be studied in patients for whom no genetic cause has been identified by classical techniques. This study aim to investigate the contribution of long fragment genome sequencing.