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NCT Number: NCT06058104

Evaluating Efficacy of a Digital Game Therapeutic for Children With Autism

The following study aims to assess the efficacy of the game-based digital therapeutic, GuessWhat, in improving adaptive socialization skills in 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.

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Key information

Conditions

Autism Autism Spectrum Disorder Autistic Disorder Child Development Disorders, Pervasive Mental Disorders Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Age range

3 year–12 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Stanford University

Stanford, California, 94305, United States

About this study

The following study aims to understand the efficacy of the digital therapeutic, GuessWhat, in improving socialization outcomes in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) after regular use over 8 weeks. We will use a cross-over, waitlist control design to examine outcomes after 8 weeks. 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 8 weeks.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Parent who is at least 18 years old of child with autism.
  • Child with autism is between 3 and 12 years old at time of baseline data collection.
  • A professional diagnosis of Autism that is able to be confirmed by negative score on a machine learning based algorithm using items from Mobile Autism Risk Assessment and video based classifier or by a copy of diagnostic report.

Exclusion criteria

  • Parent is unable to read the app in the offered languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese)
  • Parent does not have an Android or iOS smartphone compatible with GuessWhat App.
  • Child has additional psychiatric or neurologic diagnoses including genetic syndromes or epilepsy in addition to autism.

Treatment and study plan

Charades based mobile digital therapeutic

Device

The mobile 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. Parents are asked to play with their child 15 minutes 3-4 times per week for 8 weeks.

Other names: GuessWhat

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 8

    Time frame: Baseline (Week 0), Week 8

    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 Intellectual Quotient-type standard scores--v-scale scores (M=15, SD=3) where scores range from 1 to 24, and factor in age equivalents, growth scale values, and higher scores indicate better adaptive functioning.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Change in Parental Stress Scale - from baseline to week 8

    Time frame: Baseline (Week 0), Week 8

    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.

  2. Change in Emotion Recognition from baseline to week 8

    Time frame: Baseline (Week 0), Week 8

    Study team will use an image based emotion recognition task where participants will select the emotion that corresponds to an emotional facial image in the form of a GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) image. Participants will 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.

Other outcomes

  1. mobile autism risk assessment score at baseline

    Time frame: baseline (week 0)

    Study team will use a level 2 screening tool that has been validated in several studies and that uses a brief parent/caregiver questionnaire with a 2 minute home video to generate a classification score that indicates severity of the autism phenotype (ranging from no autistic symptoms to severe autism) as well as confidence in the classification.

Study contacts

Contact information is provided by the study sponsor or research team.

Kaiti Dunlap, MRes

CONTACT

[email protected]

650-497-9214

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Stanford University

Other

Registry information

Official study title

Evaluating Efficacy of a Digital Game Based Therapeutic for Improving Socialization Outcomes in Autistic Children, A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Important dates

Study start
2025
Primary completion
2026
Study completion
2026
First posted
Sep 28, 2023
Registry last updated
May 15, 2025

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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