Recruiting

Word Learning

Sponsor:

The University of Texas at Dallas

Code:

NCT06649916

Conditions

Autism

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 1 - 4

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

Parentese Speech

Adult Registered Speech

Study Details

Brief summary:

The overall objective of this research is to determine whether parentese delivered in the video format (Aim 1) and in live interaction (Aim 2) facilitates novel word learning in autistic children and to investigate if there are factors that influence the effect of parentese on word learning (Aim 3).

Conditions

Autism

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Study ID

NCT06649916

Start date

Oct 4, 2024

Status verified date

Oct, 2025

Completion date

Mar 1, 2028

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Mar 1, 2028

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 1 - 4

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • children with or without a diagnosis of ASD between 18 and 59 months

Exclusion Criteria:

  • hears another language more than 10% of time based on parent report
  • has uncorrected visual impairment or hearing impairment
  • has developmental disorders or medical conditions other than ASD that affect language or cognition (excepting psychiatric conditions often comorbid with ASD such as ADHD)

Study Design

Enrollment

100 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Non randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Basic Science

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Parentese

All participants will learn novel words in two conditions (parentese vs adult register) in each of the experiment (video and live word learning). In the Parentese condition, participants will listen to sentences that contain novel words in parentese.

active comparator: Adult Register

All participants will learn novel words in two conditions (parentese vs adult register) in each of the experiment (video and live word learning). In the Adult Register condition, participants will listen to sentences that contain novel words in adult register speech.

Interventions

Parentese Speech

Novel words are introduced in parentese, a type of speech that is typically characterized by greater pitch variation, longer duration, and louder volume

Adult Registered Speech

Novel words are introduced in standard adult register.

Primary outcome measure

  • Proportion of time during which children's eye gaze is directed toward the target object [ Time Frame: 300 ms after the target words are introduced ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Pumpki L Su, PhD

972-883-2384lei.su@utdallas.edu

McKenzie Cullinan, MS

mckenzie.cullinan@utdallas.edu

Locations

University of Texas at Dallas

Recruiting

Richardson, Texas, United States, 75080

Contacts

Pumpki L. Su, PhD

973-883-2384lei.su@utdallas.edu

McKenzie Cullinan, MS

mckenzie.cullinan@utdallas.edu

Principal Investigator:

Pumpki L. Su, PhD

More Information

Sponsor

The University of Texas at Dallas

Last update posted

Oct 23, 2025

Last verified

Oct, 2025

Keywords

  • autism
  • word learning
  • language development

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-08. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by The University of Texas at Dallas on 2025-10-23.