Area toddlers to be part of autism study

A technique aimed at helping toddlers with autism communicate better and relate to others through play is about to undergo a rigorous test to measure its results against other techniques.

Propelled by a $15 million grant, a partnership of the UC Davis MIND Institute and two other research centers will recruit up to 120 families nationwide, including 40 in the Sacramento region, to participate in the test.

Aspects of the technique being studied have been used for more than 25 years, but this is the largest, most exacting effort to see how it stacks up against other approaches to autism, said Sally J. Rogers, a UC Davis Medical School psychiatry professor who helped create it.

"This is the first rigorous trial of a play-based approach or a relationship-based approach" in very young children, she said.

The technique involves tapping into whatever each child is interested in at the moment, but assigning an adult to help the toddler with actions and movements – such as pointing at a toy or reaching for an object – that don't come easily to autistic children.

An earlier study in Seattle showed that autistic children taught this way had better language skills and higher IQs than some other autistic children, said Rogers, who is a senior researcher at the MIND Institute.

That study, though, compared kids who got more than 20 hours a week of the special approach with kids who might have gotten as little as five or 10 hours a week in different programs, she said.

This time around, children who are in the "control" group are likely to get more extensive support, making it easier to compare results.

Participants will be randomized, which means that when they sign up, families won't know which kind of help they're going to get.

In the Sacramento region, half the families will have researchers work with their children in their homes for 20 hours a week, and parents will be taught the system and asked to use it for at least five hours a week. The special coaching will go on for two years.

The other half of the families, the control group, will be helped to connect with an extensive range of therapies available through publicly funded programs, providing 20 to 30 hours a week of intervention.

Both groups will get annual evaluations.

Since the program being studied stresses spontaneous play and initiating communication, researchers expect that when it's over, kids in the study group will show more spontaneity in their play and communication, Rogers said.

It's also possible that they might show other benefits, such as better language skills and higher IQs. But researchers won't know that for sure until the study is over, she said.

The five-year project is being funded by the National Institutes of Health.

UC Davis' MIND Institute, which studies neurodevelopmental disorders, will get roughly $4 million for its part of the research, and the rest will go to research centers in Michigan and Washington state.

Families with children ages 12 to 27 months who are showing possible signs of autism can be considered for the study.

More information is available from Stacy Goldring, a clinical research coordinator, at (916) 703-0397.

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