Predicting Language and Literacy Growth in Children With ASD Using Statistical Learning

Launched by NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY · Mar 20, 2024

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

This clinical trial is studying how children learn language and reading skills, focusing on first-graders with autism and their non-autistic classmates. The researchers want to find out if the ability to recognize patterns in speech and print—known as statistical learning—can help predict how well children will improve in their language and literacy skills over time. They will also explore how children's brains learn these patterns, both in a lab setting and in their everyday lives.

To participate, children need to be first-graders between the ages of 6 and 8, living in the Greater Boston area, and must be native English speakers with normal hearing and vision. Children with autism must have a professional diagnosis and be able to speak in sentences. The study involves two sessions over three months, where children will undergo language and reading tests and play computer games designed to assess their learning abilities. This research aims to better understand the differences and similarities in how both autistic and non-autistic children develop their language and reading skills.

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • current first grader (6;0 - 7;6)
• • Geographically located within the Greater Boston Metropolitan Area
• • Native English speakers
• • Normal hearing
• • Normal or corrected vision
• Inclusion criteria for children with ASD (N = 25):
• • Children with a professional diagnosis of autism according to expert clinical judgment
• • Capable of speaking sentences with three or more words
• • Social Communication Parent Questionnaire score \> 15
• • Autism diagnosis confirmed by ADOS
• Inclusion criteria for typically developing controls (N = 25):
• • Neurotypical: with no known cognitive, neurological, or psychiatric disorders
• • Social Communication Parent Questionnaire score \< 11
• • Receive a score within 1 SD of the population mean for age on all assessments.
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • non-native speakers of English
• • More than 30 hours of exposure to a language other than English per week
• • history of brain injuries and head injuries
• • intellectual disability, mutism, motor delay, or developmental coordination disorder
• • metal in body
• • claustrophobic
• • history of prior neurosurgical procedure
• • substance abuse
• • signs of increased intracranial pressure