An interventional study of Contingent responses and Contingent responses plus vocal elicitation strategies in Autism, sponsored by Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 2 Years to 5 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-07-30.
Sponsored by Vanderbilt University Medical Center · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
Thirty percent of children with autism barely talk or do not talk at all despite years of intervention. This study aims to address this important and long-standing challenge by developing a novel intervention to increase the quantity and quality of vocalizations (i.e., sounds children make before words) and expressive language in young children with autism (aged 2 to 5 years) with minimal verbal skills. The intervention includes contingent responses to the child's vocalizations and vocal elicitation strategies. We also collect social validity information from parents about how they perceive the novel intervention.
1,030 studies on the registry are indexed under Autistic Disorder; 266 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 3 is below the median of 49 across 811 interventional studies indexed under Autistic Disorder.
Browse Autistic Disorder studies →Vanderbilt University Medical Center is the lead sponsor of 833 studies on the registry; 155 are open to participants now.
Of its 125 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 92 (74%) have results posted.
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Child participants
Inclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria
Caregiver participants
Participants engage in three conditions: (a) contingent responses, (b) contingent responses with vocal elicitation strategies, (c) non-contingent control
Behavioral: Contingent responses · Behavioral: Contingent responses plus vocal elicitation strategies · Behavioral: Non-contingent control
The adult systematically responds to more complex child vocalizations with more complex responses. When the child first vocalizes, the adult imitates that vocalization. The child's response determines the next adult response. If the child produces a vocalization within 3 seconds, the adult imitates the child, provides a linguistic map (i.e., puts the apparent meaning into words), and complies nonverbally with the child's apparent intent (e.g., giving item or action). If the child does not produce another vocalization within 3 seconds, the adult remains quiet until the child vocalizes again.
The adult follows the contingent responses condition protocol with the addition of using vocal toys (e.g., echo tubes, microphones that distort voices, and microphones that amplify voices) within exciting turn-taking activities/routines (e.g., blowing bubbles, balloons, and whoopee cushions). The vocal elicitation strategies emphasize the need to help children vocalize to initiate child-adult interactions. These strategies may be especially important for children who vocalize infrequently to benefit from other intervention aspects and enhance their spoken language skills. The vocal elicitation strategies are to be used when needed, rather than being obligatory for every adult-child interaction. If the child vocalizes without a vocal elicitation prompt, the adult still responds to the vocalization
The adult provides non-contingent vocal responses based on audio recordings from prior contingent responses condition sessions transmitted via a wireless earpiece. Recordings from these yoked sessions control for number and type of adult vocalizations and minimize the degree of contingency between adult and child vocalizations in this condition.
Proportion of children for whom the contingent responses with vocal elicitation strategies condition is successful for increasing quantity of vocalizations
The investigators will calculate the proportion of children for whom the contingent responses with vocal elicitation strategies condition is successful based on the child producing more non-vegetative vocalizations in the contingent responses with vocal elicitation strategies condition than the non-contingent control condition.
Time frame: Baseline to up to 8 weeks
Proportion of children for whom the contingent responses condition is successful for increasing quantity of vocalizations
The investigators will calculate the proportion of children for whom the contingent responses is successful based on the child producing more non-vegetative vocalizations in the contingent responses condition than the non-contingent control condition.
Time frame: Baseline to up to 8 weeks
Proportion of children for whom the contingent responses with vocal elicitation strategies condition provides added value for increasing quantity of vocalizations
The investigators will calculate the proportion of children for whom the contingent responses is successful based on the child producing more non-vegetative vocalizations in the contingent responses with vocal elicitation strategies condition than the contingent responses condition.
Time frame: Baseline to up to 8 weeks
Proportion of children for whom the contingent responses with vocal elicitation strategies condition is successful for increasing quality of vocalizations
Description: The investigators will calculate the proportion of children for whom the contingent responses with vocal elicitation strategies is successful based on the child producing more vocalizations with canonical syllables, more communicative vocalizations, or a higher diversity of key consonants used in communication acts in the contingent responses with vocal elicitation strategies condition than the non-contingent control condition.
Time frame: Baseline to up to 8 weeks
Proportion of children for whom the contingent responses condition is successful for increasing quality of vocalizations
Description: The investigators will calculate the proportion of children for whom the contingent responses is successful based on the child producing more vocalizations with canonical syllables, more communicative vocalizations, or a higher diversity of key consonants used in communication acts in the contingent responses condition than the non-contingent control condition.
Time frame: Baseline to up to 8 weeks
Proportion of children for whom the contingent responses with vocal elicitation strategies condition provides added value for increasing quality of vocalizations
Description: The investigators will calculate the proportion of children for whom the contingent responses with vocal elicitation strategies condition is successful based on the child producing more vocalizations with canonical syllables, more communicative vocalizations, or a higher diversity of key consonants used in communication acts in the contingent responses with vocal elicitation strategies condition than the contingent responses condition.
Time frame: Baseline to up to 8 weeks
PDFs hosted by the registry, ClinicalTrials.gov.
This study is completed, as verified in Jul 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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