Affective Prosody Recognition and Auditory Intervention for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)
Condition: Autism Spectrum Disorder
MeSH terms: Autistic Disorder; Autism Spectrum Disorder; Child Development Disorders, Pervasive
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The proposed study aims to examine the abilities of children with ASD to recognize emotional
      tones of voice - also known as affective prosody - as compared to typically developing (TD)
      children. Past findings are mixed, and although some studies have found intact performance
      among individuals with ASD, it is possible that they rely on different underlying mechanisms
      in processing affective prosody compared to TD children. Our second objective is therefore to
      examine whether children with ASD have a stronger reliance on psychoacoustic abilities -
      including rapid auditory processing and pitch direction recognition - to identify emotional
      stimuli, as compared to TD children. Lastly, the investigators will study whether auditory
      training targeting psychoacoustic abilities would improve affective prosody recognition among
      children with ASD. Sixty children with ASD and 60 TD children between 10 to 12 years old will
      be recruited. Participants' psychoacoustic abilities and affective prosody recognition will
      be assessed in the pretest. The investigators hypothesize that psychoacoustic abilities are
      stronger predictors of affective prosody recognition among children with ASD than among TD
      children. The ASD children will then be randomly assigned to two groups: one group will
      receive auditory training; the other will be an active control group that receives
      non-auditory training. Both groups will receive 12 hours of training via a mobile app. The
      children will be assessed again in the posttest.
    

Detailed description: 
      Participants will sign an informed consent statement prior to arriving at the lab.
      Participants with ASD will be randomly assigned into either the auditory training group
      (Group 1) or the active control group (Group 2). Participants without ASD will be assigned to
      the typically developed group (Group 3). Groups 1 and 2 will complete all stages of the
      study, whereas Group 3 will only complete the pre-test stage.

      Pre-test: Researchers will assess participants' affective prosody recognition ability and
      psychoacoustic ability. The tests will be conducted in a sound attenuated lab located at Hong
      Kong Baptist University. The tests include an affective prosody recognition test, a pitch
      discrimination recognition test, a rapid auditory processing test, and a theory of mind test.

      Intervention Training: Participants will be required to partake in an intervention training
      program. The program will adopt training exercises provided by Posit Science - BrainHQ. The
      participants will be asked to complete a training session of 15-30 minutes each day for 8
      weeks, arriving at a total of at least 8 hours of training. The progress of intervention
      training will be closely monitored by the research team.

      Post-test: Participant will be asked to return to the lab for post-test assessment of the
      same tests, and complete an autism assessment (ADOS-2) and intelligence assessment (WISC-IV)
      conducted by a clinical psychologist, as well as a non-verbal Intelligence test (KBIT-2)
      conducted by a trained researcher.

      Note: For ethical and fairness purposes, participants from Group 2 will be allowed to access
      the intervention training after Post-test.

      To encourage completion of the intervention training program, participants who successfully
      complete 8 hours of training will be offered a monetary reward as a token of appreciation.
    

Intervention name(s): Auditory Training; Non-auditory training
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): A series of psychoacoustic training exercises through Posit Science - BrainHQ (mobile app or web-browser version). Each training is approximately 2 minutes; A series of non-psychoacoustic training exercises through Posit Science - BrainHQ (mobile app or web-browser version). Each training is approximately 2 minutes
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: 120 participants (60 children with autism spectrum disorder and 60 typically developed children) will form three groups: Group 1 will contain 30 children with autism spectrum disorder (randomly selected) whom will partake in psychoacoustic intervention training. Group 2 will contain 30 children with autism spectrum disorder (randomly selected) whom will partake in non-psychoacoustic intervention training. Group 3 will contain 60 typically developed children whom will not partake in any training.
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Treatment