Signing Instruction for Deafness (SISI Trial)

Palo Alto (17 mi)

Age: Any Age

Sex: Any

Travel: May be covered

Time Reimbursement: Varies

Trial Phase: N/A

Waitlist Available

Sponsor: The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

No Placebo Group

Trial Summary

What is the purpose of this trial?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.

Eligibility Criteria

This trial is for deaf children aged 5 to 8 who are at high risk of language delays. It aims to improve their sign language skills, which may help with literacy and health outcomes.

Exclusion Criteria

I am a deaf student either aged 0-3 or in 4th grade or higher.

Treatment Details

The trial tests a new program based on sociocultural, cognitive, and language theories. It uses strategic and interactive methods to enhance complex sign language skills in these children.

4Treatment groups

Experimental Treatment

Group I: Single Case Research Design: Deaf Children's Language GrowthExperimental Treatment1 Intervention

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.

Group II: Pre- and Post- Descriptive Study Data of Language Outcomes ChildrenExperimental Treatment1 Intervention

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.

Group III: Improving Teacher Fidelity to SISIExperimental Treatment1 Intervention

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.

Group IV: Control and Experimental Groups: SISI EfficacyExperimental Treatment1 Intervention

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.