COLUMBIA, MO (March 6, 2017) — A common issue for parents of children with autism is sleep trouble. Whether it’s trouble settling into sleep or waking up repeatedly in the night, sleep disturbances are reported by half of families who have a child with autism.

An ongoing study at the University of Missouri’s Thompson Center hopes to help families improve their children’s sleep.

Dr. Christina McCrae, a senior scientist in the Department of Health Psychology at MU, is testing the efficacy of sleep interventions with children with autism who have sleep troubles and their parents.

To tackle the range of sleep disturbances reported across families, the study model offers eight training modules that address the most common issues. In addition, the modules are supplemented with one hour per week of one-on-one consultation with sleep therapists who are trained to individualize the techniques to their families’ unique situations.

“The new treatment we have developed is based upon established techniques for improving sleep in children,” said McCrae. “Our team has adapted those techniques to develop an autism-specific sleep treatment that takes into account the needs of children with autism and their families.”

The 19 children who participated in the first arm of the study, which concluded in January, were monitored for sleep activity with an actigraph, a wearable device that resembles a FitBit, that recorded sleep data for McCrae’s team.

Based on pre-study assessments and sleep diaries completed by parents, the appropriate modules were offered to the parents to help develop plans for individual sleep issues in the children over eight weekly appointments at the Thompson Center.

Parents then completed sleep assessments after trying the techniques in the modules and consulting sessions.

For the second phase of the study, which is currently underway, participants follow the same protocol but attend their weekly consultations remotely via a Zoom video call rather than an in-person appointment.

The research team will try to determine if the remote video calls for the sleep intervention are as effective as in-person sessions.

McCrae’s ultimate goal is to provide a more widely available sleep support treatment to families facing this common struggle.

“Our initial results suggest this new treatment may improve not only sleep, but also daytime behaviors in these children. Families may also benefit,” McCrae said. “As their child’s sleep and daytime behaviors improve, parents may start sleeping better at night and feeling better during the day as well.”

COLUMBIA, MO (March 5, 2017) — When a family, doctor or teacher suspects a child has autism, they look to diagnostic experts to determine the diagnosis.

Waiting for a diagnostic appointment, though, can be agonizing – and long. Across the U.S., the average wait time for a diagnostic appointment for autism is 13 months, and locally, the University of Missouri’s Thompson Center sees children within about 8 to 9 months.

While increasing the number of experts who can diagnose a child is one way to speed up the process, the training and resources needed by clinicians are continually outpaced by the demand for evaluations.

“Training highly qualified diagnosticians takes years of advanced education,” said principal investigator and Thompson Center Executive Director Dr. Stephen Kanne, who is also one of a handful of independent trainers on the ADOS-2, the gold-standard diagnostic measure for autism. “Keeping up with the need for services is a national issue in the field.”

Another solution? Use highly effective screening tools that funnel children who are most likely to have an autism diagnosis into a high-risk clinic, and those at low risk of having an autism diagnosis into clinics for more appropriate services, such as for learning disabilities or other disorders, with significantly shorter waits.

A new app called Cognoa, which allows parents to upload video of their children responding to predetermined prompts as well as completing a questionnaire, may fit the bill.

In a study conducted last fall, the Thompson Center led a study with two other diagnostic centers that tested Cognoa’s ability to accurately screen for children with a high-risk of autism through a complex algorithm, which produces an indication of the likelihood that the child has autism. Children ages 18 months to 6 years were offered a chance to participate in the study after first having completed the Cognoa screening process.

The app sends the uploaded video to a group of technicians trained to look for behaviors and symptoms of autism and assign each a numerical code. This data is combined with the parent’s responses to the questionnaire, producing an indication of a child’s likelihood of having autism.

With clinicians unaware of the Cognoa score from the screening, all 230 children were then given the ADOS-2 by a standard multidisciplinary diagnostic team.

The results were promising: Cognoa got the diagnosis right 71 percent of the time.

In the next phase of the study, the research team will test Cognoa with an updated version of the algorithm that the developer hopes will improve on the app’s accuracy.

“Through the wonders of machine learning and mathematics, every time more data is computed, the algorithm can adjust in response,” said Dr. Kanne. “This technology shows great promise as a litmus test for children with a question of autism and potentially reducing the wait for an expert diagnosis.”

COLUMBIA, Mo. – University of Missouri’s Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders has already enrolled 2,500 individuals with autism and their family members in the Simons Foundation Powering Autism Research for Knowledge (SPARK) project, the nation’s largest autism study, but researchers are continuing to search for more participants.

Sponsored by the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative, SPARK is partnering with scientists who hope to collect information and DNA for genetic analysis from 50,000 individuals with autism — and their families — to advance understanding of the causes of autism and hasten the discovery of supports and treatments.

The Thompson Center is one of a select group of national research institutions chosen by the Simons Foundation to assist with recruitment for the study. While the SPARK effort at MU is being led by Thompson Center Executive Director Stephen Kanne and his team, participants from across the country can complete the online enrollment from anywhere.

“The beauty of the SPARK project is that it is free and convenient for any family because registration is online; all the required materials are mailed directly to their homes,” Kanne said. “We are proud 2,500 participants have already registered, but we still have room for more individuals and their families to join this groundbreaking effort.”

Previous research has identified approximately 50 genes that might play a role in autism; scientists estimate that an additional 300 or more genes are involved. By studying these genes, associated biological mechanisms and how genetics interact with environmental factors, researchers hope to better understand the condition’s causes and link them to the spectrum of symptoms, skills and challenges of those affected.

“SPARK empowers researchers to make new discoveries that will lead to the development of new supports and treatments to improve lives,” Kanne said. “The study is open to any individual with a professional diagnosis of autism. It’s important we have a diverse group of individuals for the study.”

SPARK will connect participants to researchers, offering opportunities for participants to join any of the multiple studies offered through SPARK. The initiative will catalyze research by creating large-scale access to study participants whose DNA may be analyzed for a specific scientific question. SPARK also will gather feedback from individuals and parents of children with autism to guide future research.

Anyone interested in learning more about SPARK or in participating can visit www.SPARKforAutism.org/MUTC, or contact Amanda Shocklee at (573) 884-6092 or shockleea@missouri.edu.