Working Memory Training in Youth With Autism, Fragile X, and Intellectual Disability: A Pilot Study.
Catrina A Calub, Songpoom Benyakorn, Shuai Sun and 5 others
PMID 36018768WHAT IT FOUND
Children with autism and intellectual disability improved on working memory tests after five weeks of Cogmed training.
Some behavioral measures also improved, but the lack of a control group means these gains cannot be distinguished from practice effects or natural development.
Key findings
01Participants showed significant improvement from pre- to post-training on all three working memory measures.
02There was no significant difference in working memory improvement between children with idiopathic autism and those with autism plus Fragile X syndrome.
03Exploratory analyses found significant reductions in off-task and out-of-seat behaviors, and a reduction in repetitive behaviors for the idiopathic autism group only.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
There was no control group, so it is impossible to know if the improvements were due to the training or simply to practice effects from repeating the same tests. The sample was very small (44 participants), particularly for the Fragile X group, which limits the reliability of the findings. A substantial number of participants were on medications for ADHD or depression, which may have influenced behavioral outcomes. Missing data was high for the behavioral measures in the Fragile X group, potentially skewing those results. The study was explicitly funded as a pilot grant that excluded randomized controlled trial designs.
Declared interests
Funded by a Department of Defense Autism Research Program pilot grant. The authors note that the funding mechanism specifically excluded randomized controlled trials.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the improvements in working memory and behavior as proof that Cogmed training works. Without a control group, these gains could be due to practice effects from taking the same tests twice or natural development over the five weeks.