Occupational Therapy Intervention in Children Diagnosed With Early and Late Autism Spectrum Disorder

July 31, 2026 updated by: SEDANUR GÜRLEK

Comparison of the Effects of Occupational Therapy Intervention on Sensory Processing and Executive Functions in Children Diagnosed With Early and Late Autism Spectrum Disorder

Occupational Therapy Intervention in Children Diagnosed with Early and Late Autism Spectrum Disorder

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

30

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • being between 6 and 12 years of age
  • having a formal diagnosis of ASD
  • actively attending occupational therapy sessions.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Children with severe physical disabilities, significant visual or hearing impairments, or severe cognitive and communication limitations preventing participation in the assessment process were excluded.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Non-Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Control Group

A pediatric occupational therapy intervention will be applied to improve children's performance and independence in daily living activities. The intervention will be structured according to the child's individual needs, functional capacity, developmental level, and difficulties in daily living activities. The intervention program will use activities aimed at supporting the child's performance in areas such as self-care, feeding, dressing, toileting, personal care, functional mobility, and participation in daily living routines. During the intervention process, the child's existing skills will be evaluated, and activities suitable for the child will be planned in line with activity analysis and a task-oriented approach. The intervention program will generally include the following components:

Assessment of the child's performance in daily living activities Setting individual goals Activity analysis and activity-based intervention Working on self-care and daily living skills

Experimental: Study Group
Occupational Therapy Group

A pediatric occupational therapy intervention will be applied to improve children's performance and independence in daily living activities. The intervention will be structured according to the child's individual needs, functional capacity, developmental level, and difficulties in daily living activities. The intervention program will use activities aimed at supporting the child's performance in areas such as self-care, feeding, dressing, toileting, personal care, functional mobility, and participation in daily living routines. During the intervention process, the child's existing skills will be evaluated, and activities suitable for the child will be planned in line with activity analysis and a task-oriented approach. The intervention program will generally include the following components:

Assessment of the child's performance in daily living activities Setting individual goals Activity analysis and activity-based intervention Working on self-care and daily living skills

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Sociodemographic form
Time Frame: 4 weeks
age at diagnosis, weekly therapy frequency, total number of occupational therapy sessions, and sociodemographic data were recorded for all participants. All assessment forms were completed by caregivers during face-to-face interviews conducted before and after the intervention period.
4 weeks
Sensory Processing Measure-Home (SPM-Home)
Time Frame: 4 weeks
The Sensory Processing Measure - Home Form (SPM-H) is a caregiver-reported questionnaire designed to evaluate sensory processing and related functional behaviors in children aged 5 to 12 years (Parham & Ecker, 2007). The form consists of 75 items and is completed by parents or primary caregivers in approximately 15-20 minutes. The SPM-H assesses several sensory domains, including vision, hearing, touch, body awareness, and balance and motion. These subscales contribute to a total sensory score. In addition, the scale includes social participation and planning/ideas subscales, which reflect higher-order integrative functions influenced by sensory processing. Items are rated on a four-point frequency scale ranging from "never" to "always," with higher scores indicating greater sensory processing difficulties. Raw scores are converted into standardized T-scores, which are interpreted as typical performance, some problems, or definite dysfunction. The Turkish adaptation of the scale demon
4 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Dunn Sensory Profile
Time Frame: 4 weeks
The Dunn Sensory Profile is a caregiver-reported questionnaire developed to evaluate sensory processing patterns in children aged 3 to 10 years (Ermer & Dunn, 1998). It consists of 125 items assessing multiple sensory domains, including auditory, visual, vestibular, tactile, multisensory, and oral sensory processing. The questionnaire is completed by caregivers who have regular contact with the child in daily life. Each item is rated on a 5-point frequency scale ranging from "always" to "never." Higher scores in each subdomain indicate greater difficulties in sensory processing. The Turkish adaptation of the scale was conducted by Kayıhan et al., demonstrating satisfactory psychometric properties, with Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranging between 0.63 and 0.97 across subdomains.
4 weeks
Executive Function Occupational Routine Scale (EFORTS)
Time Frame: 4 weeks
The scale is a parent-reported measure designed to assess children's executive functioning through everyday routines. It evaluates executive control within three domains: (a) morning and evening routines, (b) play and leisure activities, and (c) social routines. Parents rate 30 items using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (always). Subscale and total scores are calculated by averaging item responses, with higher scores indicating better executive functioning in daily occupational performance. The scale also provides a cut-off score to identify the presence of executive dysfunction. EFORTS can be completed by parents in approximately 15 minutes in various settings. In the original validation study by Frisch and Rosenblum (2014), internal consistency was high, with subscale reliability coefficients ranging from 0.83 to 0.92 and an overall Cronbach's alpha of 0.947. Turkish validity and reliability were conducted by Akyurek et al. (2023).
4 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

August 1, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

November 1, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

March 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 23, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 31, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

August 3, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

August 3, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 31, 2026

Last Verified

July 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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