Active clinical trials for "Neurodevelopmental Disorders"

Infants with Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (ND) show emotional, cognitive and socio-interactive dysregulation dramatically impacting on caregiving behavior. Early family-centered rehabilitation interventions are effective in promoting better infant outcomes and in optimizing healthcare systems economic return in the long-term. The Video Feedback intervention (VFI) is effective in promoting sensitive parenting and supporting infants' development. In the light of limited resources of the healthcare systems, technological advance in telemedicine may facilitate the delivery of VFI to a greater number of families of infants with ND. Consistently, the Supporting Parenting at Home: Empowering Rehabilitation through Engagement (SPHERE) project is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) aiming at assessing effectiveness and efficacy of an early family centered VFI parenting support delivered through videoconferencing on dyads with infants with ND.

Children with disabilities often access rehabilitation services to improve their abilities to participate in everyday activities. Goal-directed therapy is considered an important therapeutic strategy to achieve outcomes that are meaningful to families. Not a lot is known about the effects of goal setting on rehabilitation outcomes. Strategies to help children participate in the goal-setting process are rarely used in clinical practice. The aim of this project is to test the effects of a child-focussed goal-setting approach, Enhancing Child Engagement in Goal Setting (ENGAGE), on therapy outcomes. The investigators are also interested in service use and the cost vs. benefits of the ENGAGE approach compared to usual practice. Children with neurodevelopmental disabilities aged 5-12 years old (n=96) who access paediatric rehabilitation services at six rehabilitation sites will participate. Therapists (n=24) at participating sites will be randomized into 1) the ENGAGE intervention group or 2) the usual therapy practice control group. Children will participate in the ENGAGE approach to goal setting or usual practice based on the allocation of their therapist. The investigators will determine if the ENGAGE approach to goal setting affects child goal performance, satisfaction with goal performance, functional abilities, participation, and parent and child quality of life. The investigators will also evaluate differences in parent and child quality of life in relation to parent costs (e.g., absenteeism, presenteeism, travel costs) and compare amount of therapy time between the two groups to see which approach is more cost-effective and efficient. The investigators will also ask children, parents, therapists, and managers to discuss aspects that influenced effective implementation of the ENGAGE approach. This study could provide evidence to improve meaningful child and family outcomes in paediatric rehabilitation and improve the efficiency of paediatric rehabilitation services.

Autism diagnostic referrals across the UK have doubled within the last five years. Covid-19 has further delayed diagnostic pathways, while innovation has not kept pace in assisting clinical teams with low cost, fast, and unobtrusive pathways to shorten waiting times for families of children with possible Autism. Sensor-based technology offers a potentially cheap, small-scale, and unobtrusive way of collecting data while children interact seamlessly with smart play objects and toys that allows a clear comparison with neuro-typical groups or children.The present exploratory group intervention (intervention, interview, focus group, and questionnaire) will map out and investigate clinical interaction through the use of "Tangiball"-a new low-cost smart toy that is highly reliable and sensitive-that has the potential to significantly reduce the timing of the diagnostic process in young children with possible Autism. The "Tangiball" records user speed and accuracy of movement, which aligns with variability between neuro-typical children and children with Autism, but is it an acceptable clinical tool for diagnostics and play?

Due to an increasing amount of children and adolescents are suffering from mental illnesses i Sweden. Early preventive psychological interventions are important to avoid a long-time use of medicines. Animal assisted therapy and especially equine assisted services (EAS) has shown to be a good complementary method to decrease anxiety and/or depression in children and adolescents. The main aim is to study the effect of a specific EAS program regarding symptoms of mental illness and in long-term follow-up of future healthcare consumption. We will conduct interviews with both participants and their parents besides the questionnaires at follow-ups (12 weeks, and 1 year) The intervention will be EAS at a farm following a detailed program, the staff at the farm are specially trained with a certification to practice EAS. Each session will last for about 60 minutes, once a week. Participants will get information of the study by the child and youth psychiatry in the region of Skane, and from student´s health team at elementary schools. Those who want ti participate will contact the study coordinator for full information and informed consent. The EAS model has been used in treatment of adult with mental illness for many years, and the result are very positive. This project provides an opportunity to evaluate the effect of EAS to promote health and prevent severe manifest mental illness among children and adolescents. There are no previous studies of the long-term effect of EAS regarding health consumption.

Organizational, time management and planning (OTMP) skills deficits are impairing features of developmental disorders, such as Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), which compromise school performance and family relations. The manualized Organizational Skills Training program (OST) was designed to target children's specific OTMP deficits. However, the brain mechanisms of treatment-induced changes remain unknown. The current study combines a training intervention (OST) with non-invasive MRI imaging in a pre-/post-design in a randomized two-arm (treatment vs. waitlist) trial to address this question.

This research project will investigate if a supplement containing a unique combination of prebiotics and probiotics can influence behaviour in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The study will use a combination of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs, prebiotics) and probiotics as an oral powder.This clinical trial will have two consecutive phases. Phase 1A is an 8-week randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial. Participants will be recruited and randomised (1:1) to receive either the investigational product (treatment group, n=30) or the placebo (control group, n=30). Phase 1B is an 8-week open-label study. All participants that complete Phase 1A will move into Phase 1B (n=60). This allows all participants to receive the investigational product and will provide additional information on increased duration of treatment.

Preterms are early exposed to a stressful environment (i.e. excessive sensory stimulation and paucity of parental contact) with subsequent detrimental effects on brain maturation and neurodevelopmental outcomes. In contrast, early interventions seem to reduce stress exposure and promote neurodevelopment. The brain functional plasticity in response to environmental experiences can be partly attributed to changes in DNA methylation. In this context, LINE-1 (L1) promoter (18% of human genome) methylation/demethylation has been associated with L1 somatic mobilization in the brain genomes, contributing to experience-driven brain plasticity; this mechanism being deregulated in important neurological disease. This study aims at identifying and characterizing the role of L1 DNA repeats as a novel biomarker to predict long-term neurodevelopmental outcome in preterm infants. In addition, the study's secondary goal will be to define a preventive approach, based on early intervention strategies, for improving long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes.

The purpose of the project is to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of the internet-delivered Acceptance and Commitment Therapy treatment (I-Navigator ACT) for parents who experience stress, distress, depression or anxiety that may be associated with being a parent of a child with disabilities. The project consists of three studies: Study 1: An open feasibility trial in which parents participate in an individual, clinician-supported internet-delivered Acceptance and Commitment Therapy treatment. Study 2: A randomized controlled trial in which participants are randomly assigned either: Navigator ACT group treatment, where parents participate in an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy group together with other parents, led by two group leaders, or I-Navigator ACT internet-delivered Acceptance and Commitment Therapy treatment, where the parent participates on their own, coached by a clinician via a message function. Study 3: A qualitative study in which a smaller sample of parents from the open feasibility trial participate in semi-structured interviews. The interviews take place after the parents have completed I-Navigator ACT. All three studies are conducted in a clinical health care context.

Children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental conditions are 3 to 5 times more likely than their peers to have other mental disorders such as anxiety, depression and disruptive behaviour. Furthermore, these conditions are less likely to be recognized, diagnosed and treated than for typically developing children. Parent training is a well-established approach to help parents change their behaviour and communication with their children with the goal of improving child behaviours. Parent-focused programs that are designed for typically developing children have shown mixed results for children with neurodevelopmental conditions and parents have reported significant challenges in accessing traditional health services due to barriers to care. There is an urgent need to explore how effective distance-delivered parenting programs can be implemented in real-world settings and how they should be adapted to meet the needs of families with children with neurodevelopmental conditions. The goal of this research project is to develop and test the effectiveness of two versions (group coaching & self-managed) of an online parenting program for managing challenging behaviours in children with neurodevelopmental disabilities. The Strongest Families Neurodevelopmental program is based on the well-established Strongest Families Parenting program for typically developing children with challenging behaviours, adapted with substantial involvement from a pan-Canadian Parent Advisory Committee. The program consists of 11 skill-based sessions with demonstration videos, audio clips, exercises, a resource webpage and a Parent-to-Parent online group (a closed Facebook group).

More than 90% of children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) experience sleep problems, whereas less than 25% of typically developing children experience sleep problems. Poor sleep can have significant consequences for children's physical and psychosocial health, as well their caregivers' well-being. The impact of sleep problems on daytime functioning is even greater in children with NDD. Although there are a range of factors that may disturb sleep in children with NDD, the most frequent cause of sleep disturbance is behavioural insomnia. There is some evidence that behavioural interventions can be effective in improving sleep in children with NDD. However, this has not been tested through well-designed, large-scale randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Moreover, there are a number of significant barriers to access for insomnia treatment for children; most importantly, sleep interventions are often only provided by specialists, limiting access to treatment services. Instead, behavioural insomnia is often treated with advice about sleep hygiene and with the supplement melatonin, which is, at best, a short-term solution. The investigators, an interdisciplinary team of researchers, will develop and evaluate the effectiveness of an online sleep intervention that will be widely accessible and sustainable and will have the potential to dramatically improve the health of children with NDD and their families.