Vanderbilt Clinical Trials

Sentence Shaping - DHH

Purpose

The proposed research addresses a long-standing and important challenge of improving literacy skills of children who are deaf and hard of hearing, a historically under researched group. The investigators aim to leverage shape coding - an empirically validated intervention approach for constructing sentences in spoken English - for improving how efficiently children who are deaf and hard of hearing learn to correctly construct sentences in written English. To advance the promising yet underutilized research on shape coding, the investigators complete the next logical step of applying the visual supports provided with shape coding to written language for deaf and hard of hearing children. Shape coding has been effective for teaching sentence structure in spoken English to children with language disabilities and has recently been applied to sentence structure in American Sign Language with deaf and hard of hearing children. Intervention involving shape coding is predicted to result in increased accuracy of word order in sentences in written English because deaf and hard of hearing children often benefit from visual information. The investigators will accomplish this aim using single case multiple probe across participants design studies with 30 fifth through eighth grade children who are deaf and hard of hearing. The knowledge gained will guide language and literacy intervention for children who are deaf and hard of hearing.

Condition

Hearing Loss, Bilateral

Eligibility

Eligible Ages: Between 9 Years and 15 Years
Eligible Sex: All
Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Inclusion Criteria

Children in grades five through eight - deaf or hard of hearing - use spoken English and American Sign Language (ASL) - bilateral hearing loss - the ability to read and understand the grammatical structures of interest - already be writing sentences, but demonstrate errors in word order and/or grammar.

Exclusion Criteria

diagnosis of dyslexia - uncorrected vision impairment (i.e., identified vision loss without use of corrective lenses that interferes with eligibility evaluation tasks) - evidence of severe motor impairment (i.e., insufficient motor skills to complete eligibility evaluation tasks independently).

Study Design

Phase: N/A
Study Type: Interventional
Allocation: N/A
Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment
Intervention Model Description: Single-case multiple probe across participants
Primary Purpose: Treatment
Masking: None (Open Label)

Arm Groups

Arm	Description	Assigned Intervention
Experimental Shape coding	Intervention will be introducing and utilizing Shape Coding to construct sentences.	Behavioral: Shape Coding Intervention will include introducing and reviewing the relevant shapes from Shape Coding and the order in which the shapes go in a sentence. The researcher will then model how to put the word tiles in order according to the shapes. Next the researcher and student work together to construct sentences. The student is then given the opportunity to independently construct sentences using the word tiles and Shape Coding. At the end of instruction, the researcher and student review the shapes and the student has the opportunity to independently construct sentences without shape coding.

Recruiting Locations

Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Nashville 4644585, Tennessee 4662168 37232

Contact:
Adriana M Valtierra, M.S.
219-614-5980
adriana.m.valtierra@vanderbilt.edu

More Details

Status: Recruiting
Sponsor: Vanderbilt University

Study Contact

Adriana M Valtierra, M.S.
219-614-5980
adriana.m.valtierra@vanderbilt.edu

Notice

Study information shown on this site is derived from ClinicalTrials.gov (a public registry operated by the National Institutes of Health). The listing of studies provided is not certain to be all studies for which you might be eligible. Furthermore, study eligibility requirements can be difficult to understand and may change over time, so it is wise to speak with your medical care provider and individual research study teams when making decisions related to participation.