NCT06058104

Evaluating Efficacy of a Digital Game Therapeutic for Children With Autism

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

• Status: Not Yet Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 1,000 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Stanford University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 3 Years – 12 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

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.

Detailed description

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.

Conditions

• Autism
• Autism Spectrum Disorder

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Charades based mobile digital therapeutic	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.

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-10-01
• Primary completion: 2026-10-01
• Completion: 2026-12-01
• First posted: 2023-09-28
• Last updated: 2025-05-15

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States