Robot-Mediated Intervention for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Hugo W. Moser Research Institute at Kennedy Krieger, Inc.40 enrolled

Overview

This study is being done to examine the impact of an interactive, social robotics program in helping children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) understand emotions and how to better recognize emotions while interacting with others. Eligible families will be randomized to either the robot intervention (n=20) or a no intervention (TAU; n=20) condition for 8-14 weeks. Assessments will occur at pre- and post-intervention as well as weekly for both conditions.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

DOUBLE

Enrollment

Conditions

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Interventions

Robot-mediated InterventionBEHAVIORAL

The intervention follows the curriculum developed by RoboKind to target and improve upon social interactions through core vocabulary and modeling.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 4 YearsMax age: 8 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Child participants must be between the ages of 4 years, 0 months and 8 years, 11 months. * Children must meet criteria for ASD or autism on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS-2; Lord et al., 2012) plus receive a clinical judgment of pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) or autism by the study team. * Children must possess sufficient expressive language skills to qualify for at least an ADOS-2 Module 2. * Caregivers must agree to participate in the study and commit to having their child participating in the intervention to which they are randomized for approximately three months. * Caregivers must agree to bring their child in for pre-testing and post-testing. * Family must speak English at least 50% in the home. Exclusion Criteria: * Child IQ \<70 (per Stanford Binet short form). * History of head injury, seizure disorder, severe aggression or self-injurious behavior. * Vision impairment after correction. * Cannot be living in foster care.

Locations (1)

Kennedy Krieger Institute

Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Change in baseline emotions accurately identified on the Transporters Quiz

The Transporters Quiz (Autism Transporters CIC, Autism Research Center) is a quiz developed to test a child's understanding of the emotions portrayed in stories. The quiz examines whether a child can link a word describing an emotion, the facial expression of that emotion, and the causes of the emotion. This quiz will be given prior to starting treatment and again at the completion of the intervention.

Time frame: 14 weeks into treatment (at completion of intervention)

Secondary Outcomes

Change in baseline Social Responsiveness Scale Score

Time frame: 14 weeks into treatment (at completion of intervention)

Number of prompt-free intervals during the treatment sessions

For treatment condition only. One session a week will be randomly selected to be recorded for 15 minutes and coded for the number of times the child independently and appropriately interacts with the robot.

Time frame: Weekly throughout intervention schedule (8-14 weeks)

Change in baseline parent report of child's emotion recognition

Time frame: 14 weeks into treatment (at completion of intervention)

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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