New hope for non-verbal kids: play plus speech therapy boosts language
NCT ID NCT04218331
First seen Jun 27, 2026 · Last updated Jul 24, 2026 · Updated 2 times
Summary
This study tests whether adding a motor-sound intervention (PROMPT) to a play-based therapy (JASPER) helps minimally verbal children with autism speak more words and combine them into phrases. Fifty-six children aged 4-7 who use fewer than 20 words will receive either JASPER alone or JASPER plus PROMPT for 12 weeks. Researchers will track their language growth over a year to see which approach works better.
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Study facts
What this study's own registry entry says, in plain language.
- Phase
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Not a phased trial
Phase numbers describe drug development. The registry uses this when they do not apply, as it does for trials of devices, procedures or behaviour changes, and for observational studies.
- Participants
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56 people
The number who actually took part.
- Started
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Apr 2021
- Expected to finish
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Jun 2027
An estimate. End dates often move.
- Lead sponsor
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Other sponsor
The registry's catch-all category, for sponsors it does not file as a company, a government agency, or a research network.
Who can take part
This study's own entry requirements. Only the study team can say for certain whether you qualify.
- Ages
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42 to 66 months
- Sex
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Anyone
- Healthy volunteers
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Not accepted
This study is not open to healthy volunteers. The entry requirements below say who it is open to.
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Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.
Inclusion Criteria: * Children meeting ADOS-2 and ADI-R criteria for ASD * age 42-66 months * have had \> 3 months of early intervention/preschool (to ensure that children already have been exposed to some community interventions) * walked prior to 24 months * use \< 20 functional words (i.e., non-echoed, non-scripted). Number of functional spoken words will be totaled in a language sample assessment. The functional word criterion is based on a 2010 NIH workgroup definition of 'minimally verbal' in school-aged children. The same definition may also apply to younger children with limited language. * stable medication over the past 6 months * nonverbal mental age of \>12 months on the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (visual reception and fine motor subscales). Exclusion Criteria: * We will exclude children who are deaf, blind or with cerebral palsy. * We will not exclude on the basis of known genetic disorder associated with ASD (ex: TSC), but expect few will actually participate, in part due to rarity of these disorders, and because for some there are other trials available at UCLA (ex: TSC). * We will exclude children in other intervention trials; in other words, we will not double enroll children into intervention trials.
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Conditions
The condition(s) this trial relates to.
As listed by the trial registrant
The condition terms exactly as the trial's registrant entered them.
Contacts and locations
Locations
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UCLA
Los Angeles, California, 90095-1406, United States
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UCLA Semel Institute
Los Angeles, California, 90024, United States
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