How Simplified Language Affects Comprehension and Learning in Young Autistic Children

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The long-term study goal is to experimentally evaluate the components (and likely active ingredients) of early language interventions for young children with ASD. The overall objective is to determine how single-word and telegraphic simplification affects real-time language processing and word learning in young children with ASD (relative to full, grammatical utterances). The proposed project will investigate three specific aims: 1) Determine how single-word and telegraphic simplification affects language processing. 2) Determine how single-word and telegraphic simplification affects word learning. 3) Evaluate child characteristics that may moderate the effects of linguistic simplification on language processing and word learning. Aim 1 will test the hypothesis that children with ASD will process full, grammatical utterances faster and more accurately than single-word or telegraphic utterances. Aim 2 will test the hypothesis that full, grammatical utterances will support word learning better than telegraphic or single-word utterances. Aim 3 will test the hypothesis that language and cognitive skills significantly moderate the effects of linguistic simplification on language processing and word learning in young children with ASD.

Official Title
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How Single-Word and Telegraphic Simplification Affects Language Processing and Word Learning in Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Conditions
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Autism Spectrum Disorder

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Linguistic simplification


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Existing or suspected autism spectrum disorder, confirmed through ADOS-2 English as primary language 1-4 years old Exclusion Criteria: Known genetic condition (e.g., Down syndrome, fragile X) Cerebral palsy Acquired brain injury Uncorrected vision or hearing impairment

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 1 Year
Maximum Age: 4 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Treatment
Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Utterance Type<br>This study uses a within-participant experimental manipulation. All participants will be exposed to all utterance types (across trials). | Behavioral: Linguistic simplification<br>* Children will participate in screen-based language processing and word learning tasks in which they hear utterances with different types and amounts of linguistic simplification (i.e., a within-group manipulation).<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Gaze location on Looking-While-Listening (LWL) tasks | LWL involves a child looking at a screen with two images, one on each side of the screen, while being provided an auditory cue that includes the name of the target image. The primary outcome is a dichotomous variable indicating whether the child is fixated on the target image or the distracter image; gaze directed at neither image will be considered missing. It will be determined whether gaze is to the left or right image, using trained coders who are blind to target side. Gaze location will be observed every 33 ms from 300 ms after onset to 2000 ms after target word onset, for a total of 51 observations per trial. Analyses will focus on differences across trial types and child characteristics in the trajectory of gaze location over the course of the trial. | Single assessment per task; total duration less than 10 minutes per task | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Gaze location in Teaching Phase of Study 2b (Fast Mapping) | A secondary outcome measure will be gaze location during the Teaching Phase of the Fast Mapping task (Study 2b). The variable is a dichotomous variable indicating whether the child is fixated on the novel image (only a single image is presented in each trial during the Teaching Phase) or not. It will be determined whether gaze is directed to the novel image, as our prior attempts to manually code single-object trials have not been successful. Only children who successfully calibrate and provide adequate automatic eye-tracking data in the Fast Mapping task will be included. Gaze location will be observed every 33 ms during the Teaching Trials. Analyses will focus on differences across trial types (single-word vs. full, grammatical teaching utterances). | Single assessment; total duration less than 10 minutes | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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language, autism, intervention, processing, learning, early childhood, treatment, early intervention, telegraphic, language input, looking-while-listening, eye tracking, comprehension, neurodevelopmental disorders