Study 3 Learning Verbs and Pronouns

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Interventions: Behavioral: Addressed Speech; Behavioral: Overheard Speech

• Registration Number: NCT05193500
• Lead Sponsor: New York University

Brief Summary

The goal of this research is to explore abilities to learn word meanings from overheard speech in children with ASD (and, as a control, typically developing children).

Specific Aim 3 (Experiment 3): Determine whether children with ASD can learn verbs and pronouns by overhearing. Most prior work on learning from overheard speech has focused on learning nouns that label objects. This experiment extends this work to study other kinds of words.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2022-01-03
• Study First Submitted QC: 2022-01-13
• Study First Posted: 2022-01-18
• Study Start: 2022-08-01
• Status Verified: 2024-11
• Primary Completion: 2025-01-05
• Study Completion: 2025-01-05
• Results First Submitted: 2025-01-06
• Results First Submitted QC: 2025-03-17
• Last Update Submitted: 2025-03-17
• Results First Posted: 2025-03-30
• Last Update Posted: 2025-03-30

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 179

Inclusion Criteria

* children with or without a diagnosis of ASD between 24 to 71 months of age

Exclusion Criteria

• native language is not English
• born premature (< 36 weeks)
• has uncorrected hearing or vision impairments
• has developmental disorders or medical conditions other than ASD that affect language or cognition (excepting psychiatric conditions often comorbid with ASD such as ADHD)
• has a history of photosensitive epileptic seizures

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: SINGLE_GROUP

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Addressed	Addressed Speech	Children participate in an interaction with an experimenter who uses the word to be learned.
Overheard	Overheard Speech	Children are present in the room while an experimenter uses the word to be learned in an interaction with another experimenter.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Object Preference for Verbs	During test phase of the experimental session (within 3 seconds after the learning phase); 1.0-2.5 seconds after the test question	Proportion of Time During Which Children's Eye Gaze is Directed Toward the Target Object in the Window from 1.0-2.5 Seconds after the Test Question
Object Selection for Pronouns	During test phase of the experimental session (within approx. 5 seconds of being asked the test question)	Proportion of trials on which children select the correct object that matches the pronoun

Trial Locations

Locations (2)

Emerson College; 🇺🇸 Boston, Massachusetts, United States

New York University; 🇺🇸 New York, New York, United States