Predicting Language and Literacy Growth in Children With ASD Using Statistical Learning

NCT06332144 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 1R56DC020208-01A1
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 41
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 2

Brief Summary

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:

• 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.

Conditions

Autism Spectrum Disorder; Language Development; Literacy

Keywords

Statistical Learning; Implicit Learning; Neuroimaging; Autism Spectrum Disorder; Language Development; Reading Development; fMRI

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (6)

• Language Composite Score

  The concurrent language skills will be computed by averaging each child's standardized scores across the TILLS language subsets and NIH Toolbox Picture Vocab. The composite score will range between 50 and 150. The higher score, the better language skills.

  At each of the two measuring time points during the school year of the first grade with three months apart over a 40-minute teleassessment session

• Reading Composite Score

  The concurrent reading skills will be computed by averaging across WRMT-III subtests, NIH Toolbox oral reading recognition. The composite score will range between 50 and 150. The higher score, the better reading skills.

  At each of the two measuring time points during the school year of the first grade with three months apart over a 40-minute teleassessment session

• Language/Literacy Disorder Status

  The binary status is determined by children's TILLS Identification core scores

  At the first visit during the school year of the first grade over a 40-minute teleassessment session

• Neural similarity between language and statistical learning tasks

  The multivoxel similarity between language processing (or phonological working memory) tasks and the statistical learning task in subject-specific language (or phonological working memory) brain regions.

  At the first visit during the school year of the first grade over a two-hour MRI session

• Orthographic statistical sensitivity

  The difference in recall accuracy of bigrams/trigrams between the high- vs. low-frequency items in the orthographic serial recall task.

  At each of the two measuring time points during the school year of the first grade with three months apart

• Phonological statistical sensitivity

  The difference in recall accuracy of bigrams/trigrams between the high- vs. low-frequency items in the phonological serial recall task.

  At each of the two measuring time points during the school year of the first grade with three months apart

Secondary Outcomes (2)

• Linguistic SL composite scores

  At each of the two measuring time points during the school year of the first grade with three months apart

• Neural sensitivity to statistical regularities during the statistical learning tasks

  At the first visit during the school year of the first grade over a two-hour MRI session

Other Outcomes (1)

• Neural activation to statistical regularities during the language tasks

  At the first visit during the school year of the first grade over a two-hour MRI session

Study Arms (1)

Enrolled participants

EXPERIMENTAL

Structural vs. Random sequences of stimuli; Intact vs. Degraded speech; Repeating 5-syllable nonwords or 2-syllable nonwords; Recall letter or syllable strings that either contain highly frequent bigram/trigram items or infrequent items according to English Corpus data

Behavioral: Structural vs. Random sequences of stimuli; Behavioral: Intact vs. Degraded speech; Behavioral: Repeating 5-syllable nonwords or 2-syllable nonwords; Behavioral: Recall letter or syllable strings that either contain highly frequent bigram/trigram items or infrequent items according to English Corpus data.

Interventions

Intact vs. Degraded speech BEHAVIORAL

Participants will listen to an audiobook "Alice in Wonderland" in the MRI scanner. The speech is either intact or degraded.

Enrolled participants

Repeating 5-syllable nonwords or 2-syllable nonwords BEHAVIORAL

Participants will listen to nonwords (either 5-syllable or 2-syllable) and then repeat them as accurately as possible in the MRI scanner.

Enrolled participants

Structural vs. Random sequences of stimuli BEHAVIORAL

Participants will see or listen to sequences of sounds and images either in a structured condition or a random condition.

Enrolled participants

Recall letter or syllable strings that either contain highly frequent bigram/trigram items or infrequent items according to English Corpus data. BEHAVIORAL

Participants will read (orthographic serial recall) or listen to (phonological serial recall) strings.

Enrolled participants

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 72 Months - 90 Months
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

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
• 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
• 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

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Northeastern University: lead
• University of Delaware: collaborator
• Boston University: collaborator
• Cornell University: collaborator

Study Sites (2)

Northeastern University

Boston, Massachusetts, 02115, United States

Location

Boston University

Boston, Massachusetts, 02215, United States

Location

Related Publications (4)

• Ozernov-Palchik O, Qi Z, Beach SD, Gabrieli JDE. Intact procedural memory and impaired auditory statistical learning in adults with dyslexia. Neuropsychologia. 2023 Sep 9;188:108638. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2023.108638. Epub 2023 Jul 28.

  PMID: 37516235 BACKGROUND

• Hu A, Kozloff V, Owen Van Horne A, Chugani D, Qi Z. Dissociation Between Linguistic and Nonlinguistic Statistical Learning in Children with Autism. J Autism Dev Disord. 2024 May;54(5):1912-1927. doi: 10.1007/s10803-023-05902-1. Epub 2023 Feb 7.

  PMID: 36749457 BACKGROUND

• O'Brien AM, Perrachione TK, Wisman Weil L, Sanchez Araujo Y, Halverson K, Harris A, Ostrovskaya I, Kjelgaard M, Kenneth Wexler, Tager-Flusberg H, Gabrieli JDE, Qi Z. Altered engagement of the speech motor network is associated with reduced phonological working memory in autism. Neuroimage Clin. 2023;37:103299. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2022.103299. Epub 2022 Dec 23.

  PMID: 36584426 BACKGROUND

• Schneider JM, Hu A, Legault J, Qi Z. Measuring Statistical Learning Across Modalities and Domains in School-Aged Children Via an Online Platform and Neuroimaging Techniques. J Vis Exp. 2020 Jun 30;(160):10.3791/61474. doi: 10.3791/61474.

  PMID: 32716372 BACKGROUND

Related Links

• PLAUSL Project Website

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Autism Spectrum Disorder; Literacy

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Child Development Disorders, Pervasive; Neurodevelopmental Disorders; Mental Disorders; Communication; Behavior

Study Officials

• Zhenghan Qi, MD/PhD

  Northeastern University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NA
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: DIAGNOSTIC
• Intervention Model: SINGLE GROUP
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: March 5, 2024
• First Posted: March 27, 2024
• Study Start: January 13, 2024
• Primary Completion: August 31, 2025
• Study Completion: August 31, 2025
• Last Updated: December 22, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-12

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, SAP, ANALYTIC CODE
• Time Frame: The data will be made available to other users within 12 months of the final data point being collected or at the time of an associated publication, whichever comes first.
• Access Criteria: All research participants will be consented for broad data sharing. To protect the privacy and confidentiality of the participants, raw video or audio files will not be shared outside of the research team. We do not commit to processing additional data beyond our own needs for the purpose of sharing. Any data we have processed we are willing to share. To request access of the data, researchers will use the standard processes at NDA, and the NDA Data Access Committee will decide which requests to grant. The standard NDA data access process allows access for one year and is renewable. The NDA GUID tool allows researchers to aggregate data from the same research participant without different laboratories having to share personally identifiable information about that research participant. The NDA data dictionaries do not permit personally identifiable information to be shared. NDA maintains a Certificate of Confidentiality.

Locations

US (2)