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Examining Interactions Between PALS and Caregivers
Sponsor: Penn State University
Summary
The goal of this clinical trial is to learn about the effect of communicative interaction on verbal communication in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and their caregivers. The question is, What are the effects of communicative interaction on verbal communication in people with ALS when they interact with their caregivers and does this change over time? Participants will read words and sentences while they are interacting with their caregivers.
Official title: Examining Interactions Between Persons With ALS and Caregivers
Key Details
Gender
All
Age Range
18 Years - 90 Years
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Enrollment
152
Start Date
2025-01-22
Completion Date
2029-02-28
Last Updated
2026-04-06
Healthy Volunteers
Yes
Conditions
Interventions
Structured Communicative Interaction
Two interlocutors, one with ALS and their caregiver will work together. Each participant in the pair will view the same set of words on their screens. After one second, one of the words will be highlighted on the speaker's screen, they will say the word in the phrase "Click on the \_\_\_\_ this time", and the listener will click on it. After the listener has made their selection, both participants will receive feedback on trial success.
Unstructured communicative interaction
Two interlocutors, one with ALS and their caregiver will work together. The pairs will be presented with two different versions of the same picture with eight differences chosen to elicit the same target segments (e.g., "hid", "ship", "net"). These pictures will be modified from the LUCID corpus. In total, pairs will complete four picture sets per session. Pairs will be given 5 minutes for each picture set.
Locations (1)
Speech Core, Pennsylvania State University
University Park, Pennsylvania, United States