Open Grants

Personalized, Responsive Intervention Sequences for Minimally Verbal Children with Autism 
Subaward PI: Dr. Stephanie Shire (PI: Dr. Connie Kasari, University of California Los Angeles)
Funded by: National Institutes of Health
Grant number: R01HD095973
Many 3-4 year old children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who are ‘preverbal’ (less than 20 functional words) do not go on to develop socially related words and phrases by age 5-6 years. The overarching goal of this multi-site project is to maximize language outcomes for preverbal preschoolers by developing a two-stage, 20-week “adaptive intervention” (an intervention that incorporates a replicable sequence of treatment decision rules to guide clinicians on how and when to alter an intervention). This study addresses key questions in designing a personalized intervention, including how best to intervene with children responding slowly to initial intervention, which moderators are important to designing a more individually tailored intervention, and exploration of mechanism in understanding ultimate benefit of the adaptive strategies.