Past studies (no longer enrolling participants)
Anxiety Pilot Study
Brief Description:
The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate a set of measures of anxiety in young autistic children. Promising interventions have been developed for autistic and non-autistic preschoolers. However, measuring anxiety is challenging in young children given language challenges, emotional awareness, and a wide range of behavioral expressions of anxiety. This project examined whether physiological responses – like sweaty hands, heart rate, or brain activity – are useful as measures of anxiety in very young children.
Participation Details:
This project is no longer recruiting.
Project Updates:
Thank you to the children and families who participated in baseline and follow-up visits!
We learned that these measures were helpful in measuring anxiety in young autistic children. We hope to publish our work very soon.
The findings from this project led to a study to evaluate whether these measures are 9helpful in understanding response to behavioral intervention.
Executive Attention Skills in Youth (EASY) Study
How do children solve tricky problems and regulate emotion?
Brief Description:
The Faja Lab is examining executive control - how children manage complex or conflicting information while working toward a goal or solving a problem. Many children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) exhibit difficulties with executive control. This project will examine whether brain responses related to executive control problems are tied to social problem solving and emotional control and will compare performance on executive control tasks between children with and without ADHD.
Eligibility for Study Participation:
- 7- to 11-year-olds with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Participation Details:
This project is no longer recruiting.
Full Description:
Executive function is the ability to manage complex or conflicting information in the service of attaining a goal. It is necessary when conflicting thoughts, feelings, or responses must be resolved or a learned response must be inhibited. Executive functioning skills improve throughout development and encompass a range of interrelated domains, including inhibition, attention regulation, set-shifting and working memory.
Executive control is often reduced in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Impairment can start in childhood and persists throughout adulthood. The ability to manage conflicting information and behavior is an important social skill.
For more information contact easystudy@childrens.harvard.edu.
GAMES Project (Gaming for Autism to Mold Executive Skills)
What if playing video games could help children with autism have better executive functioning?
Brief Description:
Here in the Faja lab we are testing new computer games to improve executive functioning in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
So far, there have only been two published studies using interventions to improve executive functioning skills in children with ASD. In the GAMES Project, we will test whether computer games that have improved executive control, self-regulation and brain function among young, typically developing children are beneficial for children with ASD.
Eligibility for Study Participation:
- 7- to 11-year-olds with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders.
Participation Details:
This project is no longer recruiting.
Full Description:
Executive function is the ability to manage complex or conflicting information in the service of attaining a goal. It is necessary when conflicting thoughts, feelings, or responses must be resolved or a learned response must be inhibited. Executive functioning skills improve throughout development and encompass a range of interrelated domains, including inhibition, attention regulation, set-shifting and working memory.
Executive function is especially important for children with ASD because, in addition to core ASD symptoms, over half of school-age children with ASD exhibit deficits in executive function in the absence of general intellectual disability. Difficulties can start in childhood and persist throughout adulthood. The ability to manage conflicting information and perspectives is an important social skill. In particular, the ability to represent the thoughts, beliefs and feelings of others is related to executive function, above and beyond language ability and intelligence.
For more information contact gamesproject@childrens.harvard.edu.