E-Unstuck: Interactive E-Learning Software for Parents to Support Executive Functioning and Behavior Regulation in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

NIMH
ID: 1R44MH109193-01
PI: MELISSA DEROSIER, DEBRA CHILDRESS, LAUREN KENWORTHY
TERM: 09/15 – 03/18

The current prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder is 1 in 68 children, and 69% of these children do not have an intellectual disability (ASDwoID). Individuals with ASDwoID are at considerable risk for maladaptive adult outcomes (e.g., un- or underemployment), and executive functioning (EF) impairments significantly contribute to this risk. Unstuck and On Target (UOT) is the only empirically supported EF intervention specifically targeted to the needs of the ASDwoID population. It has improved both EF and social skills in children with ASDwoID in a randomized controlled trial. Despite its demonstrated success, there are significant geographical, scheduling, and financial barriers to parental adaptation of the UOT curriculum.

Goal and Innovation: The goal of this project was to develop and test e-Unstuck, an e-learning intervention that (1) provides advanced training to parents of children with ASDwoID on how to implement the evidence-based UOT curriculum at home and (2) is built on 3C’s proprietary, state-of-the-art, Dynamic e-Learning Platform, an established platform with high ratings of quality, value, usability, and feasibility from end users. e-Unstuck will make UOT more accessible to parents with geographical, scheduling, and/or financial constraints and will provide parents with key tools (e.g., video modeling, virtual simulations, personalized reports) to increase efficacious adoption of UOT principles, above and beyond those provided in the UOT manual. e-Unstuck is the first dynamically adaptive, personalized, interactive software product specifically designed to deploy an evidence-based EF intervention to parents of children with ASDwoID.

Specific Aims: We accomplished five specific aims, two in Phase I, and three in Phase II: (1) developed a prototype of e-Unstuck, (2) conducted a feasibility test of e-Unstuck with parents of children with ASDwoID between the ages of 8-12, (3) fully developed the e-Unstuck software and conduct iterative usability testing with parents of children with ASDwoID, (4) conducted a pilot efficacy test in which 110 parents of children with ASDwoID are randomly assigned to the e-Unstuck intervention or to a control condition in which they receive in-person training on the UOT curriculum, and (5) prepared e-Unstuck for commercialization.

 

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DEB CHILDRESS, PHD

Chief of Research and Learning Content

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Childress obtained her PhD in psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to coming to 3C Institute, she served as a research associate and a postdoctoral fellow in the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill working on a longitudinal imaging study aimed at identifying the early markers of autism through behavioral and imaging methodologies. She has 19 years of autism research experience, during which she has examined the behavioral, personality, and cognitive characteristics of individuals with autism and their family members. Dr. Childress also has experience developing behavioral and parent report measurement tools, coordinating multi-site research studies, and collecting data from children and families. She has taught courses and seminars in general child development, autism, and cognitive development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Expertise

  • autism
  • early development
  • behavioral measurement
  • integrating behavioral and biological measurement

Education

  • Postdoctoral fellowship, Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (Institutional NRSA-NICHD), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • PhD, developmental psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • BS, psychology (minor in sociology), University of Iowa

Selected Publications

  • Elison, J. T., Wolff, J. J., Heimer, D. C., Paterson, S. J., Gu, H., Hazlett, H. C., Styner, M, Gerig, G., & Piven, J. (in press). Frontolimbic neural circuitry at 6 months predicts individual differences in joint attention at 9 months. Developmental Science.
  • Wassink, T. H., Vieland, V. J., Sheffield, V. C., Bartlett, C. W., Goedken, R., Childress, D. & Piven, J. (2008). Posterior probability of linkage analysis of autism dataset identifies linkage to chromosome 16. Psychiatric Genetics,18(2),85-91.
  • Losh, M., Childress, D., Lam K. & Piven, J. (2008). Defining key features of the broad autism phenotype: A comparison across parents of multiple- and single-incidence autism families. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 147B(4):424-33.
  • Wassink, T. H., Piven, J., Vieland, V. J., Jenkins, L., Frantz R., Bartlett, C. W., Goedken, R., … Sheffield, V.C. (2005). Evaluation of the chromosome 2q37.3 gene CENTG2 as an autism susceptibility gene. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 136, 36-44.
  • Barrett, S., Beck, J., Bernier, R., Bisson, E., Braun, T., Casavant, T., Childress, D., … Vieland, V. (1999). An autosomal genomic screen for autism. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 88, 609-615. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1096-8628(19991215)88:63.0.CO;2-L
  • Piven, J., Palmer, P., Landa, R., Santangelo, S., Jacobi, D. & Childress, D. (1997). Personality and language characteristics in parents from multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 74, 398-411.
  • Piven, J., Palmer, P., Jacobi, D., Childress, D. & Arndt, S. (1997). Broader autism phenotype: Evidence from a family history study of multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 185-190.