Computer-Mediated Intervention to Enhance Emotional Competence in Children With Autism in Schools

NCT05902832 | Unknown

• 1 other identifier: Bar Ilan University
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 130
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Autism spectrum condition (ASC) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized fundamentally by social deficits. Emotional competence - the ability to express, recognize, understand, and regulate emotions - is a key aspect of social communication. Evidence suggests that the developmental trajectories of autistic children differ from that of neuro-typical children regarding their ability to process and recognize emotions from paralinguistic emotional facial, body language, and voice tone cues. They also have difficulty integrating these cues in context and lack in emotional language. Numerous approaches to teaching people with autism how to recognize and understand emotions have been tried, with recent increased interest in computer-based interventions (CBI). However, most of the research focused only on facial expressions, were limited to autistic children with no intellectual disabilities (ID); and showed limited generalization to real social settings. EmotiPlay, a computer-based intervention program, designed to enhance emotion recognition (ER) by addressing multiple modalities of emotional cues (facial expressions, tone of voice, body language), has shown good outcome when used at home by autistic children and no ID . However, the examination of generalization was partial and depended only on parental reports. The present study main goals are to: (1) Examine the adaptation and the integration of EmotiPlay into special education classrooms in regular schools. (2) Assess EmotiPlay's effect on emotional competence among autistic children at different functioning levels.

Conditions

Autism Spectrum Disorder; Intellectual Disability, Mild

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (15)

• Emotion recognition task

  Emotion recognition test includes 4 tasks to examine emotion recognition: 1. facial expressions videos 2. decontextualized vocal utterances 3. body language videos 4. Integrative video clips presenting all 3 modalities in context, that were extracted from old television shows, sound track was muffled in order to prevent semantic information, but keep prosodic cues. The test include 12 emotions, for every video or recording 4 answers are presented, the target emotion and the order of the possible answers was counterbalanced. In each modality the subject can achieve 0-12 points, a point for every emotion recognized correctly.

  before intervention

• Emotion recognition

  Emotion recognition test includes 4 tasks to examine emotion recognition: 1. facial expressions videos 2. decontextualized vocal utterances 3. body language videos 4. Integrative video clips presenting all 3 modalities in context, that were extracted from old television shows, sound track was muffled in order to prevent semantic information, but keep prosodic cues. The test include 12 emotions, for every video or recording 4 answers are presented, the target emotion and the order of the possible answers was counterbalanced. In each modality the subject can achieve 0-12 points, a point for every emotion recognized correctly.

  immediately after the intervention

• Emotion recognition

  Emotion recognition test includes 4 tasks to examine emotion recognition: 1. facial expressions videos 2. decontextualized vocal utterances 3. body language videos 4. Integrative video clips presenting all 3 modalities in context, that were extracted from old television shows, sound track was muffled in order to prevent semantic information, but keep prosodic cues. The test include 12 emotions, for every video or recording 4 answers are presented, the target emotion and the order of the possible answers was counterbalanced. In each modality the subject can achieve 0-12 points, a point for every emotion recognized correctly.

  15 weeks after the end of the intervention

• Emotion understanding

  TEC - Test of Emotion Competence (Pons \& Harris, 2000) design to assess emotion understanding in 3-12 years old children, it is based on Pons et al. (2002) model of 9 developmental stages to emotion understanding among children. In the test, the subjects are presented with 23 illustrated pictures, in a boy and girl versions. In the first 5 scenarios the child is asked to recognize basic emotions from facial expressions, Next, the child is presented with short stories and the illustrated picture is missing emotional cues in the character face. The examiner reads the story and the child is asked to choose the correct emotion from 4 options. Maximum scoring 21 points.

  before intervention

• Emotion understanding

  TEC - Test of Emotion Competence (Pons \& Harris, 2000) design to assess emotion understanding in 3-12 years old children, it is based on Pons et al. (2002) model of 9 developmental stages to emotion understanding among children. In the test, the subjects are presented with 23 illustrated pictures, in a boy and girl versions. In the first 5 scenarios the child is asked to recognize basic emotions from facial expressions, Next, the child is presented with short stories and the illustrated picture is missing emotional cues in the character face. The examiner reads the story and the child is asked to choose the correct emotion from 4 options. Maximum scoring 21 points.

  immediately after the intervention

• Emotion understanding

  TEC - Test of Emotion Competence (Pons \& Harris, 2000) design to assess emotion understanding in 3-12 years old children, it is based on Pons et al. (2002) model of 9 developmental stages to emotion understanding among children. In the test, the subjects are presented with 23 illustrated pictures, in a boy and girl versions. In the first 5 scenarios the child is asked to recognize basic emotions from facial expressions, Next, the child is presented with short stories and the illustrated picture is missing emotional cues in the character face. The examiner reads the story and the child is asked to choose the correct emotion from 4 options. Maximum scoring 21 points.

  15 weeks after the end of the intervention

• Emotional-mental vocabulary

  Emotion definition task - assess the subject's ability to define 12 emotions. Participants were asked to define the emotion (for example: "please explain what is happy?") and to give examples to personalize experience related to each of the emotions (e.g.: "can you describe a situation that you felt happy?"). The definition and examples were audiotaped, and then transcribed. Points will be allocated to the definition of each emotion according the subscale vocabulary in WISC- IV, all emotions falls within the range of 0 to 24 points

  before intervention

• Emotional-mental vocabulary

  Emotion definition task - assess the subject's ability to define 12 emotions. Participants were asked to define the emotion (for example: "please explain what is happy?") and to give examples to personalize experience related to each of the emotions (e.g.: "can you describe a situation that you felt happy?"). The definition and examples were audiotaped, and then transcribed. Points will be allocated to the definition of each emotion according the subscale vocabulary in WISC- IV, all emotions falls within the range of 0 to 24 points

  immediately after the intervention

• Emotional-mental vocabulary

  Emotion definition task - assess the subject's ability to define 12 emotions. Participants were asked to define the emotion (for example: "please explain what is happy?") and to give examples to personalize experience related to each of the emotions (e.g.: "can you describe a situation that you felt happy?"). The definition and examples were audiotaped, and then transcribed. Points will be allocated to the definition of each emotion according the subscale vocabulary in WISC- IV, all emotions falls within the range of 0 to 24 points

  15 weeks after the end of the intervention

• social functioning

  socio-emotional functioning will be evaluated by playground observation and coded by POPE - Playground Observation of Peer Engagement (Kasari et al, 2005). This instrument is a time-interval behavior coding system. Independent observers from the research team watched the target child on the playground for 40 consecutive seconds and then coded for 2 seconds for ten minutes during school recess. The observers noted the child's engagement with peers on the playground (solitary, proximity, onlooking, parallel, parallel aware, involved in games and rules and joint engaged with peers) in each interval. Coders will also note positive and negative initiations of the target child towered other children, and positive and negative responses to a peer's social overtures.

  before intervention

• social functioning

  socio-emotional functioning will be evaluated by playground observation and coded by POPE - Playground Observation of Peer Engagement (Kasari et al, 2005). This instrument is a time-interval behavior coding system. Independent observers from the research team watched the target child on the playground for 40 consecutive seconds and then coded for 2 seconds for ten minutes during school recess. The observers noted the child's engagement with peers on the playground (solitary, proximity, onlooking, parallel, parallel aware, involved in games and rules and joint engaged with peers) in each interval. Coders will also note positive and negative initiations of the target child towered other children, and positive and negative responses to a peer's social overtures.

  immediately after the intervention

• social functioning

  socio-emotional functioning will be evaluated by playground observation and coded by POPE - Playground Observation of Peer Engagement (Kasari et al, 2005). This instrument is a time-interval behavior coding system. Independent observers from the research team watched the target child on the playground for 40 consecutive seconds and then coded for 2 seconds for ten minutes during school recess. The observers noted the child's engagement with peers on the playground (solitary, proximity, onlooking, parallel, parallel aware, involved in games and rules and joint engaged with peers) in each interval. Coders will also note positive and negative initiations of the target child towered other children, and positive and negative responses to a peer's social overtures.

  15 weeks after the end of the intervention

• spontaneous emotional mental language

  Narrative re-telling task - narratives were elicited using two wordless picture-books, "Frog on His Own (Mayer, 1973) and "Frog, where are you?" (Mayer, 1969). Stories were shortened to a 15-pages, depicting a frog's adventures after departing from his boy companion. Participants are asked to listen to a story the examiner is telling with a predetermined script, while presenting the pictures on an iPad (via book creator app). One book was randomly assigned to each participant, and after listening to the story, the participants will be asked to tell the story in their own words while flipping through the pictures. The stories will be audiotaped, transcribed and coded according to Capps et al., (2000)

  before intervention

• spontaneous emotional mental language

  Narrative re-telling task - narratives were elicited using two wordless picture-books, "Frog on His Own (Mayer, 1973) and "Frog, where are you?" (Mayer, 1969). Stories were shortened to a 15-pages, depicting a frog's adventures after departing from his boy companion. Participants are asked to listen to a story the examiner is telling with a predetermined script, while presenting the pictures on an iPad (via book creator app). One book was randomly assigned to each participant, and after listening to the story, the participants will be asked to tell the story in their own words while flipping through the pictures. The stories will be audiotaped, transcribed and coded according to Capps et al., (2000)

  immediately after the intervention

• spontaneous emotional mental language

  Narrative re-telling task - narratives were elicited using two wordless picture-books, "Frog on His Own (Mayer, 1973) and "Frog, where are you?" (Mayer, 1969). Stories were shortened to a 15-pages, depicting a frog's adventures after departing from his boy companion. Participants are asked to listen to a story the examiner is telling with a predetermined script, while presenting the pictures on an iPad (via book creator app). One book was randomly assigned to each participant, and after listening to the story, the participants will be asked to tell the story in their own words while flipping through the pictures. The stories will be audiotaped, transcribed and coded according to Capps et al., (2000)

  15 weeks after the end of the intervention

Secondary Outcomes (4)

• Autistic traits

  before the intervention

• Autistic traits

  immediately after the intervention

• adaptive skills

  before the intervention

• adaptive skills

  immediately after the intervention

Study Arms (3)

Experimental group - Autistic children

EXPERIMENTAL

60 7-10-years-old autistic children, from special education classes integrated in regular schools. this group will receive EmotiPlay's intervention in the curriculum.

Behavioral: EmotiPlay

Control group- Autistic children

NO INTERVENTION

60 7-10-years-old autistic children, from special education classes integrated in regular schools. this group will be wait-listed and receive treatment as usual.

Control group-Neurotypical

NO INTERVENTION

30 6-10-years-old children, from regular education match in cognitive and linguistic abilities.

Interventions

EmotiPlay BEHAVIORAL

EmotiPlay is a computer-based intervention program, designed to enhance emotion recognition (ER) by addressing multiple modalities of emotional cues (facial expressions, tone of voice, body language),

Experimental group - Autistic children

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 6 Years - 11 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• autism spectrum condition

You may not qualify if:

• Verbal Intelligence (according to Wechsler) 3 or lower.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Bar-Ilan University, Israel: lead

Study Sites (1)

Bar Ilan University

Ramat Gan, 5290002, Israel

Location

Related Publications (3)

• Fridenson-Hayo S, Berggren S, Lassalle A, Tal S, Pigat D, Bolte S, Baron-Cohen S, Golan O. Basic and complex emotion recognition in children with autism: cross-cultural findings. Mol Autism. 2016 Dec 19;7:52. doi: 10.1186/s13229-016-0113-9. eCollection 2016.

  PMID: 28018573 RESULT

• Golan O, Baron-Cohen S, Golan Y. The 'Reading the Mind in Films' Task [child version]: complex emotion and mental state recognition in children with and without autism spectrum conditions. J Autism Dev Disord. 2008 Sep;38(8):1534-41. doi: 10.1007/s10803-007-0533-7. Epub 2008 Feb 29.

  PMID: 18311514 RESULT

• Macrostructure, microstructure, and mental state terms in the narratives of English-Hebrew bilingual preschool children with and without specific language impairment. Applied PsychoLinguistics, 37(1), 165-193.

  RESULT

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Autism Spectrum Disorder; Intellectual Disability; Lymphoma, Follicular

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Child Development Disorders, Pervasive; Neurodevelopmental Disorders; Mental Disorders; Neurobehavioral Manifestations; Neurologic Manifestations; Nervous System Diseases; Signs and Symptoms; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin; Lymphoma; Neoplasms by Histologic Type; Neoplasms; Lymphoproliferative Disorders; Lymphatic Diseases; Hemic and Lymphatic Diseases; Immunoproliferative Disorders; Immune System Diseases

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: TRIPLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, CARE PROVIDER, OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: SUPPORTIVE CARE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Prof. Ofer Golan

Model Details: participant will be randomly divided to one of two groups: first group will take part in the intervention program and the second will be wait-listed and children will receive treatment as usual

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: February 9, 2023
• First Posted: June 15, 2023
• Study Start: March 1, 2022
• Primary Completion: November 1, 2023
• Study Completion: December 1, 2023
• Last Updated: June 15, 2023

Record last verified: 2023-06

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

IL (1)