Video Assisted Speech Technology to Enhance Motor Planning for Speech

NCT ID: NCT04764539

Last Updated: 2023-05-09

Study Results

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Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

6 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2019-12-01

Study Completion Date

2020-11-30

Brief Summary

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Nearly 3.5 million Americans are diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), a communication disorder that causes skill limitations in the areas of language acquisition, sensory integration, and behavior. This lack of functional language ability limits conversation to its most basic parts, making daily tasks difficult for minimally to non-verbal individuals to achieve. iTherapy is developing the VAST platform, a personalized educational experience for students with ASD by creating a virtual reality-based video-modeling program to stimulate engagement and speech production practice, ultimately providing those with ASD an opportunity to enhance their quality of life by increasing their speech abilities which will enable them to build social networks and handle the events of daily life.

Detailed Description

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Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental communication disorder resulting in functional language and behavioral delays affecting over 3.5 million Americans. These delays vary with the severity of symptoms that present in ASD but often result in limited speech and increased communication challenges. Alongside linguistic acquisition, oral motor coordination is a crucial part of speech production.

Current clinical techniques have shown varying degrees of efficacy in improving functional language proficiency. Most techniques follow a drill-like procedure, where the child is made to repeat various sounds and phrases until they are retained. However, such a process requires potentially over twenty therapy sessions to show improvement which may then only be focused on one aspect of speech. This significantly limits the linguistic and social skills a student will acquire. To improve the efficacy of these therapy sessions, new technology must be developed to provide the most effective educational experience.

Video-assisted speech technology (VAST) is a method of using a video of a close-up model of the mouth and speaking simultaneously with it. Rather than present the individual with a static photograph of the initial phoneme, the entire sequence of oral movements can be presented sequentially via video-recorded segments of the orofacial area producing connected speech, combining best practices, video modeling, and literacy with auditory cues to provide unprecedented support the development of vocabulary, word combinations and communication.

In this SBIR Phase I proposal, iTherapy will develop a personalized educational experience for students with ASD by creating a virtual reality (VR) based VAST program to stimulate engagement and speech production practice. VR offers several benefits as a therapy technique: overcoming sensory difficulties, more effectively generalizing information, employing visual learning, and providing individualized treatment. As a user moves through the stages of the program, they will be immersed in a proactive environment where they will engross themselves with continuous content.

Rather than present the individual with a static photograph of the initial phoneme, the entire sequence of oral movements can be presented sequentially via VR-modelled segments of the orofacial area producing connected speech, combining best practices, video modeling, music therapy, and literacy with auditory cues to provide unprecedented support the development of vocabulary, word combinations and communication. The innovation will be a video series of a realistic VR mouth which will require the use of an app on a tablet or a smartphone, VR goggles, and bone conduction headphones.

Conditions

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Autism Spectrum Disorder Apraxia of Speech

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Six children with ASD, between the ages of 4 and 8, were recruited to participate in a 12-sessions-long study that utilized the Video-Assisted Speech Therapy (VAST) application. The participants were divided into two groups: one which received the VR-integrated prototype, and one that received a 2D application on a tablet. Each session was approximately 15 minutes long (+/- 5 minutes), occurring twice per week.
Primary Study Purpose

TREATMENT

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

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Stimuli administered via 2D format on an iPad Pro

Participants were given the Video-Assisted Speech Therapy (VAST) video-modeling stimuli in a 2D format (iPad Pro). Three children with ASD, between the ages of 4 and 8, participated in a 14-sessions-long study that utilized the tablet-based VAST application. Sessions were held twice a week with each lasting approximately 15 minutes (i.e. +/- 5 minutes).

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Video Assisted Speech Therapy (VAST)

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Six children with ASD, between the ages of 4 and 8, participated in a 14-sessions-long study that utilized the VR-integrated and the tablet-based VAST application. Three subjects received a 3D VR-integrated, bone conduction VAST prototype, while the remaining group of three received a tablet with a 2D version of the software. Sessions were held twice a week with each lasting approximately 15 minutes (i.e. +/- 5 minutes).

Stimuli administered in 3D format via VR goggles and bone conduction headphones

Participants were given the Video-Assisted Speech Therapy (VAST) video-modeling stimuli in a VR format paired with a custom 3D-printed VR headset. Three children with ASD, between the ages of 4 and 8, participated in a 14-sessions-long study that utilized a 3D VR-integrated VAST prototype with bone conduction audio. Sessions were held twice a week with each lasting approximately 15 min (i.e. +/- 5 minutes).

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Video Assisted Speech Therapy (VAST)

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Six children with ASD, between the ages of 4 and 8, participated in a 14-sessions-long study that utilized the VR-integrated and the tablet-based VAST application. Three subjects received a 3D VR-integrated, bone conduction VAST prototype, while the remaining group of three received a tablet with a 2D version of the software. Sessions were held twice a week with each lasting approximately 15 minutes (i.e. +/- 5 minutes).

Interventions

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Video Assisted Speech Therapy (VAST)

Six children with ASD, between the ages of 4 and 8, participated in a 14-sessions-long study that utilized the VR-integrated and the tablet-based VAST application. Three subjects received a 3D VR-integrated, bone conduction VAST prototype, while the remaining group of three received a tablet with a 2D version of the software. Sessions were held twice a week with each lasting approximately 15 minutes (i.e. +/- 5 minutes).

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Nonverbal-minimally verbal children (0-5 words)
* Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Exclusion Criteria

* No history of seizures for participating with VR goggles.
Minimum Eligible Age

4 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

8 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)

NIH

Sponsor Role collaborator

iTherapy, LLC

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Lois Brady

Principal Investigator

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

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All research was conducted via tele-research due to COVID-19

Vallejo, California, United States

Site Status

Countries

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United States

References

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Baio J, Wiggins L, Christensen DL, Maenner MJ, Daniels J, Warren Z, Kurzius-Spencer M, Zahorodny W, Robinson Rosenberg C, White T, Durkin MS, Imm P, Nikolaou L, Yeargin-Allsopp M, Lee LC, Harrington R, Lopez M, Fitzgerald RT, Hewitt A, Pettygrove S, Constantino JN, Vehorn A, Shenouda J, Hall-Lande J, Van Naarden Braun K, Dowling NF. Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Children Aged 8 Years - Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 Sites, United States, 2014. MMWR Surveill Summ. 2018 Apr 27;67(6):1-23. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.ss6706a1.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 29701730 (View on PubMed)

Autism Spectrum Disorder: Communication Problems in Children. (2018, August 30). Retrieved from https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/autism-spectrum-disorder-communication-problems-children

Reference Type BACKGROUND

Maas E, Robin DA, Austermann Hula SN, Freedman SE, Wulf G, Ballard KJ, Schmidt RA. Principles of motor learning in treatment of motor speech disorders. Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 2008 Aug;17(3):277-98. doi: 10.1044/1058-0360(2008/025).

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 18663111 (View on PubMed)

Bent S, Hendren RL. Complementary and alternative treatments for autism part 1: evidence-supported treatments. AMA J Ethics. 2015 Apr 1;17(4):369-74. doi: 10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.4.sect1-1504. No abstract available.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 25901707 (View on PubMed)

Lord, C., & Paul, R. (1997). Language and communication in autism. In D. Cohen & F. Volkmar (Eds.), Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders (pp. 195-225). New York, NY: Wiley.

Reference Type BACKGROUND

Jang J, Matson JL, Williams LW, Tureck K, Goldin RL, Cervantes PE. RETRACTED: Rates of comorbid symptoms in children with ASD, ADHD, and comorbid ASD and ADHD. Res Dev Disabil. 2013 Aug;34(8):2369-78. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2013.04.021. Epub 2013 May 22.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 23708709 (View on PubMed)

Battle DE. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Codas. 2013;25(2):191-2. doi: 10.1590/s2317-17822013000200017. No abstract available.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 24413388 (View on PubMed)

Symptoms and Diagnosis of ADHD | CDC. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/diagnosis.html.

Reference Type BACKGROUND

Sarah Parsons & Sue Cobb (2011) State-of-the-art of virtual reality technologies for children on the autism spectrum, European Journal of Special Needs Education, 26:3, 355-366, DOI: 10.1080/08856257.2011.593831

Reference Type BACKGROUND

Strickland DC, McAllister D, Coles CD, Osborne S. An Evolution of Virtual Reality Training Designs for Children With Autism and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders. Top Lang Disord. 2007 Jul 1;27(3):226-241. doi: 10.1097/01.tld.0000285357.95426.72.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 20072702 (View on PubMed)

Evers, K., Noens, I., Steyaert, J., & Wagemans, J. (2011). Combining strengths and weaknesses in visual perception of children with an autism spectrum disorder: Perceptual matching of facial expressions. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders,5(4), 1327-1342. doi:10.1016/j.rasd.2011.01.004

Reference Type BACKGROUND

Strickland D, Marcus LM, Mesibov GB, Hogan K. Brief report: two case studies using virtual reality as a learning tool for autistic children. J Autism Dev Disord. 1996 Dec;26(6):651-9. doi: 10.1007/BF02172354.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 8986851 (View on PubMed)

Handbook of Sensory Physiology - rd.springer.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://rd.springer.com/content/pdf/bfm:978-3-642-88658-4/1.pdf

Reference Type BACKGROUND

Why Speech Rate? Why are results inconclusive? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.asha.org/Events/convention/handouts/2007/1337_Chon_Hee_Cheong/ Brown, R. (1973) A First Language London: Allen and Unwin.

Reference Type BACKGROUND

Provided Documents

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Document Type: Study Protocol and Statistical Analysis Plan

View Document

Other Identifiers

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1R43DC018447-01

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

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1R43DC018447-01

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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