Strategic and Interactive Signing Instruction

NCT06667102 | Enrolling By Invitation

• 2 other identifiers: UTennesseeKnoxvilleR21DC021024
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 150
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Strategic and interactive approaches driven by sociocultural, cognitive, and language theories have accumulated a large body of evidence documenting improvements in more complex oral and written language skills. Growing evidence demonstrates that more complex sign language skills positively predict literacy skills and may lead to improved health outcomes. This project involves new applications of theory-driven strategic and interactive approaches in an intervention program to target sign language development in deaf children between 5 and 8 years old who are at high risk of language delays.

Conditions

Teaching Behaviors; Sign Language Skills

Keywords

Sign language; Teacher training; Language deprivation

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Sign Language Skills

  Deaf children's application of genre-based trait skills in sign language will be analyzed using rubrics adapted from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) rubrics for standardized writing assessments.

  From enrollment to the end of treatment 9 academic months later.

• Teaching Behaviors

  Teachers' fidelity to SISI will be measured through the fidelity instrument.

  From enrollment to the end of treatment 9 academic months later.

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Written Language

  From enrollment to the end of treatment 9 academic months later.

Study Arms (4)

Improving Teacher Fidelity to SISI

EXPERIMENTAL

A noncurrent multiple baseline design across teacher participants will be utilized to assess the extent of support required by teachers to become proficient in SISI implementation. In this study, the independent variable is the SISI training, and the dependent variable is teacher fidelity to the SISI program as measured by the SISI fidelity checklist.

Behavioral: Strategic and Interactive Signing Instruction

Control and Experimental Groups: SISI Efficacy

EXPERIMENTAL

This pre- and post- study provides baseline data on deaf children's sign language development prior to receiving SISI. Additionally, each participating teacher will submit a recorded instructional unit showcasing their best methods for supporting sign language development. This provides a further layer of baseline analysis, allowing the PI to assess the instructional methods already in use prior to SISI professional development and implementation. Demographic data for both teachers and students will also be collected in preparation for the quasi-experiment study. Then, teachers will be assigned to either an experimental group, which will receive SISI professional development, or a control group that will continue with their usual teaching practices. In this quasi-experiment study, SISI's efficacy will be evaluated by comparing outcomes between the two groups.

Behavioral: Strategic and Interactive Signing Instruction

Pre- and Post- Descriptive Study Data of Language Outcomes Children

EXPERIMENTAL

Up to 40 children from 4 classes will provide pre- and post-data in which they respond to a prompt in sign language on video.

Behavioral: Strategic and Interactive Signing Instruction

Single Case Research Design: Deaf Children's Language Growth

EXPERIMENTAL

Single case research design will provide robust day-to-day data of causal relations between SISI and sign language skills. Given teachers' high fidelity in SISI implementation, a noncurrent multiple baseline design across child participants will be applied to assess the extent of SISI improving deaf children's target sign language skills in a year. The independent variable of this study is the SISI implementation, which is used to improve the dependent variables which will be target sign language skills.

Behavioral: Strategic and Interactive Signing Instruction

Interventions

Strategic and Interactive Signing Instruction BEHAVIORAL

SISI centers on deaf children producing sign language compositions to communicate their messages with identified audiences, and teachers utilizing strategic and interactive approaches to bring attention to target sign language skills by consciously monitoring and manipulating language to create desired meanings grounded in socially shared understandings.

Control and Experimental Groups: SISI Efficacy; Improving Teacher Fidelity to SISI; Pre- and Post- Descriptive Study Data of Language Outcomes Children; Single Case Research Design: Deaf Children's Language Growth

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 4 Years - 99 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Deaf students in prekindergarten to 3rd grade classes
• Teachers of the deaf in prekindergarten to 3rd grade classes

You may not qualify if:

• Hearing students, deaf students aged 0-3 or 4th grade and beyond
• Non-teachers of the deaf or teachers of the deaf in 4th grade and beyond

Sponsors & Collaborators

• The University of Tennessee, Knoxville: lead
• National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD): collaborator

Study Sites (1)

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Knoxville, Tennessee, 37996, United States

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Sign Language

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Language; Communication; Behavior; Manual Communication; Nonverbal Communication

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: CROSSOVER
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: The PI will implement an experimental single case research design to track doses of SISI training and its efficacy in increasing teacher faithfulness to SISI. The PI will implement an experimental single case research design to identify causal relations between SISI and target sign language skills. The PI will implement a pre- and post- data to track deaf children's baseline growth in sign language skills prior to receiving SISI. The PI will implement a quasi-experimental study to identify the efficacy of SISI in improving deaf children's sign language skills.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: October 29, 2024
• First Posted: October 31, 2024
• Study Start: August 23, 2024
• Primary Completion (Estimated): June 30, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 30, 2026
• Last Updated: October 31, 2024

Record last verified: 2024-10

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: CSR
• Time Frame: IPD will be made available on 12/30/2026 with no end date.
• Access Criteria: A researcher may access the IPD by contacting the principal investigator.

Locations

US (1)