CClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT04739982Updated Sep 19, 2024Results posted

A Lead-in Study Evaluating Efficacy of GuessWhat Mobile App Therapy for Children With Autism

An interventional study of GuessWhat Mobile App in Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorder, sponsored by Stanford University. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 3 Years to 12 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2024-09-19.

Sponsored by Stanford University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Other

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
541
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
3 Years to 12 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The following study aims to assess the efficacy, safety data, and best outcome measurements of the mobile game platform, GuessWhat, in delivering behavioral therapy to children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). GuessWhat is a mobile application (available for free for iOS and Android) which contains a suite of games: pro-social charades, emotion guessing, and quiz. Participant families will use their personal smartphones to download the app and play it with their child according to a predetermined regimen.

Read the detailed description

The following study aims to understand the efficacy and safety of the mobile game platform, GuessWhat, in delivering behavioral therapy to children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). GuessWhat is a mobile application (available for free for iOS and Android) which contains a suite of games: pro-social charades, emotion guessing, and quiz. Participant families will use their personal smartphones to download the app and play it with their child according to a predetermined regimen. The study will enroll parents who are at least 18 years old and have a child between 3 and 12 years old with a formal ASD diagnosis. Parents will be asked to complete two clinical outcome measure questionnaires immediately prior to and up to 1 week after playing GuessWhat with their child 3 times per week for 4 weeks.

02

Conditions studied

  • Autism
  • Autism Spectrum Disorder

Keywords

  • digital health
  • mhealth
  • autism
  • intervention
  • behavioral therapy
03

In context

Autistic Disorder

1,344 studies on the registry are indexed under Autistic Disorder; 334 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 541 is above the median of 45 across 1,044 interventional studies indexed under Autistic Disorder.

Browse Autistic Disorder studies →

Lead sponsor

Stanford University is the lead sponsor of 2,117 studies on the registry; 425 are open to participants now.

Of its 259 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 197 (76%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
3 Years to 12 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

  1. Parent who is at least 18 years old of child with autism.
  2. Child with autism is between 3 and 12 years old at time of baseline data collection.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Parent is unable to read English.
  2. Parent does not have an Android or iOS smartphone compatible with GuessWhat App--the app will be available on Android after further development and we will notify interested families when it becomes available.
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Other
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
541 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Treatment

    The GuessWhat app is a charades style game and app that engages parent and child in fluid social interaction where the parent must guess what the child is acting out based on the prompt shown on the phone screen. Participants will use their own personal phone to download the study app. Parent and child will be encouraged to play using the emojis and emotion game mode at least 3 individual game sessions per week. Parents are asked to play GuessWhat with their child 3-4 times per week for 4 weeks.

    Device: GuessWhat Mobile App

  • No intervention
    Treatment as Usual

    Participants in control group will continue their treatment as usual.

Interventions

  • DeviceGuessWhat Mobile App

    The GuessWhat app is a charades style game and app that engages parent and child in fluid social interaction where the parent must guess what the child is acting out based on the prompt shown on the phone screen. Participants will use their own personal phone to download the study app. Parent and child will be encouraged to play using the emojis and emotion game mode at least 3 individual game sessions per week. Parents are asked to play GuessWhat with their child 3-4 times per week for 4 weeks.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Change in Parent Reported Socialization Based on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales 3rd Edition (VABS-3) Parent/Caregiver Socialization Subscale, From Baseline to Week 4

    Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, 3rd edition (VABS-3) Socialization subscale of the Parent/Caregiver Comprehensive form will be administered online to the parents. Scores from the socialization domain of the VABS-III reflects one's functioning in social situations. The socialization subscale is up to 112 items depending on age and development, where raw scores are converted to IQ-type standard scores with mean 100 and standard deviation of 15, and factor in age equivalents, growth scale values, and higher scores indicate better adaptive functioning. The range for each subscale is 20 to 140.

    Time frame: Baseline (Week 0), Week 4

Secondary outcomes

  1. Change in Parental Stress Scale - From Baseline to Week 4

    The Parental Stress Scale is an 18-item parent report scale that evaluates the extent of parent stress. Scores range from 18-90, where higher scores indicate a higher level of Parental stress. Parents completed this survey, but were not considered to be enrolled in the study.

    Time frame: Baseline (Week 0), Week 4

  2. GuessWhat App Usage Data

    App usage data by participants (children) comprised of number of MojiMatch and Charades Games started.

    Time frame: Baseline through week 4 (assessed at week 4)

  3. Change in Emotion Recognition From Baseline to Week 4

    Study team used an image based emotion recognition task where participants (children) will select the emotion that corresponds to an emotional facial image in the form of a GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) image. Participants select 1 of 8 available Ekman emotion labels for 16 facial emotional image stimuli presented in random order. Correct responses will be measured against a predetermined majority rules consensus of the emotional content of the GIFs. Scores range from 0 (no emotional image stimuli correctly identified) to 16 (all correctly identified).

    Time frame: Baseline (Week 0), Week 4

07

Results

Posted Sep 19, 2024

Participant flow

Participants were recruited between June 1, 2021 and July 1, 2022 using emails and online research listings.

Participant flow — Overall Study
MilestoneTreatmentTreatment as Usual
Started322219
Completed week 4 survey127149
Completed127149
Not completed19570
Withdrew: Lost to follow-up17665
Withdrew: Withdrawal by subject190
Withdrew: Protocol violation05

Outcome measures

PrimaryChange in Parent Reported Socialization Based on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales 3rd Edition (VABS-3) Parent/Caregiver Socialization Subscale, From Baseline to Week 4

Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, 3rd edition (VABS-3) Socialization subscale of the Parent/Caregiver Comprehensive form will be administered online to the parents. Scores from the socialization domain of the VABS-III reflects one's functioning in social situations. The socialization subscale is up to 112 items depending on age and development, where raw scores are converted to IQ-type standard scores with mean 100 and standard deviation of 15, and factor in age equivalents, growth scale values, and higher scores indicate better adaptive functioning. The range for each subscale is 20 to 140.

Time frame:
Baseline (Week 0), Week 4
Reported as:
Mean · score on a scale
Change in Parent Reported Socialization Based on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales 3rd Edition (VABS-3) Parent/Caregiver Socialization Subscale, From Baseline to Week 4
score on a scaleTreatmentTreatment as Usual
Change in Parent Reported Socialization Based on the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales 3rd Edition (VABS-3) Parent/Caregiver Socialization Subscale, From Baseline to Week 4.56 ± .98.23 ± .96
Statistical analysis
  • Treatment vs Treatment as Usual · t-test, 1 sided · p = .41 (An independent samples t-test was conducted to compare the change in baseline and follow-up scores of treatment and treatment as usual participants.) · Cohen's d: .03 · 95% CI -.21 to .27Degrees of freedom=274 Significance level=.05
SecondaryChange in Parental Stress Scale - From Baseline to Week 4

The Parental Stress Scale is an 18-item parent report scale that evaluates the extent of parent stress. Scores range from 18-90, where higher scores indicate a higher level of Parental stress. Parents completed this survey, but were not considered to be enrolled in the study.

Time frame:
Baseline (Week 0), Week 4
Reported as:
Mean · units on a scale
Change in Parental Stress Scale - From Baseline to Week 4
units on a scaleTreatmentTreatment as Usual
Change in Parental Stress Scale - From Baseline to Week 4-5.18 ± .76-7.01 ± 1.17
Statistical analysis
  • Treatment vs Treatment as Usual · t-test, 1 sided · p = .095 · Cohen's d: .153 · 95% CI -.08 to .39
SecondaryGuessWhat App Usage Data

App usage data by participants (children) comprised of number of MojiMatch and Charades Games started.

Time frame:
Baseline through week 4 (assessed at week 4)
Reported as:
Mean · number of games
GuessWhat App Usage Data
number of gamesTreatment
GuessWhat App Usage Data15.77 ± 25.43
SecondaryChange in Emotion Recognition From Baseline to Week 4

Study team used an image based emotion recognition task where participants (children) will select the emotion that corresponds to an emotional facial image in the form of a GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) image. Participants select 1 of 8 available Ekman emotion labels for 16 facial emotional image stimuli presented in random order. Correct responses will be measured against a predetermined majority rules consensus of the emotional content of the GIFs. Scores range from 0 (no emotional image stimuli correctly identified) to 16 (all correctly identified).

Time frame:
Baseline (Week 0), Week 4
Reported as:
Mean · score on a scale
Change in Emotion Recognition From Baseline to Week 4
score on a scaleTreatmentTreatment as Usual
Change in Emotion Recognition From Baseline to Week 4-.37 ± 4.34-1.12 ± 3.42
Statistical analysis
  • Treatment vs Treatment as Usual · t-test, 1 sided · p = .09 · Cohen's d: .19 · 95% CI -.09 to .47

Adverse events

Collected over 8 weeks. Non-serious events are listed at a 1% frequency threshold.

Adverse event summary by group
GroupDeathsSeriousOther
Treatment0/322 (0%)0/322 (0%)0/322 (0%)
Treatment as Usual0/219 (0%)0/219 (0%)0/219 (0%)

Baseline characteristics

Participants who completed follow-up survey at week 4

Age, Categorical
Age, Categorical(Participants)TreatmentTreatment as UsualTotal
<=18 years127149276
Between 18 and 65 years000
>=65 years000
Age, Continuous
Age, Continuous(years)TreatmentTreatment as UsualTotal
Mean7.89 (3 to 12)7.47 (3 to 12)7.66 (3 to 12)
Sex: Female, Male
Sex: Female, Male(Participants)TreatmentTreatment as UsualTotal
Female333164
Male94118212
Race/Ethnicity, Customized
Race/Ethnicity, Customized(Participants)TreatmentTreatment as UsualTotal
American Indian or Alaska Native167
Black or African American191837
East Asian71320
Hispanic or Latino182341
Middle Eastern202
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander224
South Asian51520
Unknown / Not Listed344276
Caucasian/White474794
Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-3 Socialization Subscale Standard Score
Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-3 Socialization Subscale Standard Score(score on a scale)TreatmentTreatment as UsualTotal
Mean72.30 ± 16.6866.97 ± 18.4269.42 ± 17.84
Parental Stress Scale Score
Parental Stress Scale Score(score on a scale)TreatmentTreatment as UsualTotal
Mean47.06 ± 9.1347.95 ± 9.8147.54 ± 9.40
Mobile Autism Risk Assessment
Mobile Autism Risk Assessment(score on a scale)TreatmentTreatment as UsualTotal
Mean-3.39 (-9.28 to 6.434)-3.82 (-9.28 to 5.684)-3.62 (-9.28 to 6.434)
08

Study locations

1 site
  • Stanford University
    Stanford, California 94305, United States
09

References and documents

Study documents

  • Protocol and statistical analysis plan · Sep 21, 2023
  • Informed consent form · Jun 7, 2023

Documents are hosted by the registry — open the source record to download them.

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Yes

Supporting information: Study protocol, Icf

10

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Sep 19, 2024, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
11

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04739982
Lead sponsor
Stanford University
Collaborators
National Library of Medicine (NLM)
Responsible party
Dennis Paul Wall (Associate Professor, Stanford University) — Principal investigator
First posted
Feb 5, 2021
Start date
Jul 7, 2021
Primary completion
Jul 15, 2023
Completion
Jul 15, 2023
Results posted
Sep 19, 2024
Last update
Sep 19, 2024

Study contacts

Dennis P Wall, PhD
principal investigator · Stanford University

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
Yes
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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