Validation of an outcome measure of early social-communication for young children with ASD

自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 幼儿早期社交沟通结果测量的验证

• 批准号: 10797286
• 负责人: Brian Antonio Boyd
• 金额: $ 60.86万
• 依托单位: UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-03-01 至 2025-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10797286
• 关键词: Validation; outcome; measure; early; social

Abstract The majority of validated social-communication measures for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were designed to behaviorally phenotype or diagnose this core symptom domain and not to detect change over time. The lack of validated outcome measures has somewhat stifled intervention research efforts as well as early interventionists’ ability to monitor the effects of their programs on children’s social-communicative outcomes. It has become difficult to sort out whether non-significant treatment effects are a result of truly ineffective interventions, or rather poorly validated measures for this population. We know that the early, foundational social-communication and language skills of children with ASD predict their functioning into adolescence and even adulthood, with functional use of language by age 5 being one of the best predictors of long-term prognosis. As such, clinicians have begun to focus their efforts on improving children’s social- communication and language skills using both developmental and behavioral interventions as well as pharmaceutical treatments. In reviewing these treatment trials, it is clear there is a range of intervention success and even more clear that we lack a consistent set of outcome measures for the social-communication symptom domain. Our group has been working to validate measures of key social-communication and language skills and are able to draw from a wealth of prior psychometric data to adapt and validate a brief observational measure that can be easily used within clinical trials as well as within routine care and practice. We propose to adapt and psychometrically validate a measure of social-communication and language skills for young children, ages 12 – 60 months, preliminarily or formally diagnosed with ASD. Specifically, we plan to validate the Early Communication Indicator for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ECI-ASD) using a robust and representative multisite sample of well-characterized children with ASD (n = 400). The current version of the ECI is norm-referenced and allows for progress monitoring, which means the measure can be used in a formative, data-driven fashion to monitor children’s intervention progress and make changes if children are not improving, but it also can provide summative outcome data. In addition, the current measure can be scored live using a mobile app. Currently, no other current social-communication measure specifically designed for children with ASD easily allows for ongoing intervention progress monitoring, data visualization, and live scoring, which will make the adapted ECI-ASD a unique outcome measurement tool. Further, the ECI-ASD will provide the ability to enter data into an online platform to compare the progress of children with ASD to normative data and this represents a sorely needed and clear innovation above current measurement approaches. The expected deliverable is a novel outcome measure of key social-communication and language skills that is psychometrically sound, minimally burdensome to administer and score, and sensitive to the incremental change expected for young children with ASD.

摘要 大多数针对自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）儿童的有效社会沟通措施 被设计为行为表型或诊断这一核心症状领域，而不是检测变化 随着时间缺乏有效的结果测量也在一定程度上抑制了干预研究的努力 作为早期干预者的能力，以监测他们的方案对儿童的社会交往的影响， 结果。很难弄清楚不显著的治疗效果是否是真正的治疗效果的结果。 无效的干预措施，或者对这一人群的有效措施相当差。我们知道早期， ASD儿童的基本社交和语言技能预测他们的功能， 青少年甚至成年期，5岁时语言的功能性使用是最好的预测因素之一， 长期预后。因此，临床医生已经开始把他们的努力集中在改善儿童的社会- 使用发展和行为干预的沟通和语言技能，以及 药物治疗。在回顾这些治疗试验时，很明显， 更明显的是，我们缺乏一套一致的社会沟通结果衡量标准， 症状域我们的团队一直致力于验证关键社交沟通的措施， 语言技能，并能够从丰富的心理测量数据，以适应和验证简短的 这是一种可以在临床试验以及常规护理和实践中轻松使用的观察性测量方法。 我们建议调整和心理测量验证社会沟通和语言技能的措施， 年龄12 - 60个月的幼儿，初步或正式诊断为ASD。具体来说，我们计划 验证自闭症谱系障碍的早期沟通指标（ECI-ASD）使用一个强大的， 具有良好特征的ASD儿童的代表性多地点样本（n = 400）。的当前版本 ECI是规范参考的，并允许进行进度监控，这意味着该措施可以用于 形成性的，数据驱动的时尚，以监测儿童的干预进展，并作出改变，如果儿童没有 改善，但它也可以提供总结性的结果数据。此外，目前的措施可以得分生活 使用移动的应用程序。目前，还没有其他专门针对 ASD儿童可以轻松实现持续的干预进展监测、数据可视化和实时 评分，这将使适应ECI-ASD一个独特的结果测量工具。此外，ECI-ASD将 提供将数据输入在线平台的能力，以比较ASD儿童的进展， 规范性数据，这是一个迫切需要的和明确的创新以上目前的衡量标准 接近。预期成果是一种新的衡量关键社会沟通和语言的成果 这些技能在心理测量上是合理的，管理和评分的负担最小，并且对 ASD幼儿的预期增量变化。