Examining Affective Prosody Recognition Among Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders and the Effectiveness of an Auditory Intervention Using a Mobile App

Detailed Summary

The proposed study aims to examine the abilities of children with ASD to recognize emotional tones of voice - also known as affective prosody - as compared to typically developing (TD) children. Past findings are mixed, and although some studies have found intact performance among individuals with ASD, it is possible that they rely on different underlying mechanisms in processing affective prosody compared to TD children. Our second objective is therefore to examine whether children with ASD have a stronger reliance on psychoacoustic abilities - including rapid auditory processing and pitch direction recognition - to identify emotional stimuli, as compared to TD children. Lastly, the investigators will study whether auditory training targeting psychoacoustic abilities would improve affective prosody recognition among children with ASD. Sixty children with ASD and 60 TD children between 10 to 12 years old will be recruited. Participants' psychoacoustic abilities and affective prosody recognition will be assessed in the pretest. The investigators hypothesize that psychoacoustic abilities are stronger predictors of affective prosody recognition among children with ASD than among TD children. The ASD children will then be randomly assigned to two groups: one group will receive auditory training; the other will be an active control group that receives non-auditory training. Both groups will receive 12 hours of training via a mobile app. The children will be assessed again in the posttest.

Study Details

Timeline

Interventions