Predicting Language and Literacy Growth in Children With ASD Using Statistical Learning
Completed · Not applicable
Conditions studied: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Language Development, Literacy
In brief
The goal of this observational study is to test a reciprocal relationship between statistical learning and the development of language and literacy in first-graders with autism and their non-autistic peers. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. whether children's statistical learning abilities can predict their long-term improvement of language and literacy skills in school; 2. how children's brains automatically learn patterns from speech and prints; 3. whether children's learning in the lab reflects the language patterns they have learned over the years from their native language. First-grade students will participate in the study twice across three months. During Time 1, children will complete * a battery of language, reading, and cognitive assessments * a series of computer-based statistical learning games both inside and outside of functional MRI scanner. During Time 2, children will complete a battery of language and reading assessments to detect the growth in three months. Researchers will compare the autistic and the non-autistic groups to see if statistical learning plays a similar or different role in predicting children's language and literacy growth.
Key facts
- Study ID
- NCT06332144
- Run by
- Northeastern University
- People needed
- 41
- Starts
- 2024-01-13
- Expected to finish
- 2025-08-31
- Last updated by the study team
- 2025-12-22
Who can join
Age: 6 and older, up to 8. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.
You may qualify if…
- 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.
You may not qualify if…
- 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
Where it is running
- Northeastern University — Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- Boston University — Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov
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