Evaluating Efficacy of a Digital Game Based Therapeutic for Improving Socialization Outcomes in Autistic Children, A Randomized Clinical Trial.
Trial Snapshot
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Status
- Not yet recruiting
- Sponsor
- Stanford University
- Enrollment
- 1,000
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Change in parent reported socialization based on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales 3rd Edition (VABS-3) Parent/Caregiver Socialization Subscale, from baseline to week 8
Study Overview
Brief Summary
The following study aims to assess the efficacy of the game-based digital therapeutic, GuessWhat, in improving adaptive socialization skills in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). GuessWhat is a mobile application (available for free for iOS and Android) which contains a suite of games: pro-social charades, emotion guessing, and quiz. Participant families will use their personal smartphones to download the app and play it with their child according to a predetermined regimen.
Detailed Description
The following study aims to understand the efficacy of the digital therapeutic, GuessWhat, in improving socialization outcomes in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) after regular use over 8 weeks. We will use a cross-over, waitlist control design to examine outcomes after 8 weeks. GuessWhat is a mobile application (available for free for iOS and Android) which contains a suite of games: pro-social charades, emotion guessing, and quiz. Participant families will use their personal smartphones to download the app and play it with their child according to a predetermined regimen. The study will enroll parents who are at least 18 years old and have a child between 3 and 12 years old with a formal ASD diagnosis. Parents will be asked to complete two clinical outcome measure questionnaires immediately prior to and up to 1 week after playing GuessWhat with their child 3 times per week for 8 weeks.
Study Design
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Crossover
- Primary Purpose
- Treatment
- Masking
- Single (Investigator)
Masking Description
The parent will know whether their child is receiving the treatment or not as they administer the treatment.
Eligibility Criteria
- Ages
- 3 Years to 12 Years (Child)
- Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria
- •Parent who is at least 18 years old of child with autism.
- •Child with autism is between 3 and 12 years old at time of baseline data collection.
- •A professional diagnosis of Autism that is able to be confirmed by negative score on a machine learning based algorithm using items from Mobile Autism Risk Assessment and video based classifier or by a copy of diagnostic report.
Exclusion Criteria
- •Parent is unable to read the app in the offered languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese)
- •Parent does not have an Android or iOS smartphone compatible with GuessWhat App.
- •Child has additional psychiatric or neurologic diagnoses including genetic syndromes or epilepsy in addition to autism.
Arms & Interventions
Charades-based mobile digital therapeutic
The mobile app is a charades style game and app that engages parent and child in fluid social interaction where the parent must guess what the child is acting out based on the prompt shown on the phone screen. Participants will use their own personal phone to download the study app. Parents are asked to play with their child for 15 minutes 3-4 times per week for 8 weeks.
Intervention: Charades based mobile digital therapeutic (Device)
Treatment as Usual
Participants in control group will continue their Applied Behavior Analysis therapy as usual for 8 weeks, and then will be able to cross-over to the treatment condition at week 8.
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Change in parent reported socialization based on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales 3rd Edition (VABS-3) Parent/Caregiver Socialization Subscale, from baseline to week 8
Time Frame: Baseline (Week 0), Week 8
Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, 3rd edition (VABS-3) Socialization subscale of the Parent/Caregiver Comprehensive form will be administered online to the parents. Scores from the socialization domain of the VABS-III reflects one's functioning in social situations. The socialization subscale is up to 112 items depending on age and development, where raw scores are converted to Intellectual Quotient-type standard scores--v-scale scores (M=15, SD=3) where scores range from 1 to 24, and factor in age equivalents, growth scale values, and higher scores indicate better adaptive functioning.
Secondary Outcomes
- Change in Parental Stress Scale - from baseline to week 8(Baseline (Week 0), Week 8)
- Change in Emotion Recognition from baseline to week 8(Baseline (Week 0), Week 8)
Investigators
Dennis Paul Wall
Professor
Stanford University