Shaping children’s sentences: trialling visual support for children with language difficulties using the SHAPE CODING system in mainstream primary schools

Shaping children’s sentences: for children aged 5-10 years with language difficulties in mainstream primary schools, do those receiving intervention using the SHAPE CODING system make greater gains than those in a control group who receive usual support (intervention for other areas of speech and language, an SLT programme or school intervention) on expressive language as measured by a grammar factor combining six grammatical measures

Status

Recruiting

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Interventional

Source

ISRCTN

Registry ID

ISRCTN96114973

Enrollment

260

Registered

2024-05-17

Start date

2024-05-20

Completion date

Unknown

Last updated

2025-09-22

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Intervention aiming to improve expressive language in children with language difficulties (including Developmental Language Disorder, DLD) Mental and Behavioural Disorders

Interventions

This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of SHAPE CODING intervention for children with language difficulties (including DLD) aged 5-10 years old in mainstream schools by carrying out a 4-stag

Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF)-5, Formulated Sentences subtest) to ensure that grammar is an area of difficulty. Those with a standard score above 90 on the SPELT-3 or above 6 on

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

All

Inclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria: Current inclusion criteria as of 09/09/2025: 1. Children in school years 1-6 (aged 5-10 years old) at the start of the intervention 2. Either already on the SLT caseload or there are concerns about their language development 3. Difficulties with expressive grammar with a standard score at or below 95 on the SPELT-3, and a scaled score at or below 7 on the CELF-5 Formulated Sentences subtest ____ Previous inclusion criteria as of 28/06/2024: 1. Children in school years 1-5 (aged 5-9 years old) at the start of the intervention 2. Either already on the SLT caseload or there are concerns about their language development 3. Difficulties with expressive grammar with a standard score below 95 on the SPELT-3, and a scaled score below 7 on the CELF-5 Formulated Sentences subtest ____ Previous inclusion criteria: 1. Children in school years 1-5 (aged 5-9 years old) at the start of the intervention 2. Either already on the SLT caseload or there are concerns about their language development 3. Difficulties with expressive grammar with a standard score below 90 on the SPELT-3, and a scaled score below 7 on the CELF-5 Formulated Sentences subtest

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion criteria: Current exclusion criteria as of 09/09/2025: 1. Children with a standard score above 95 on the SPELT-3, or 2. Children with a standard score above 6 on the CELF-5 Formulated Sentences subtest ____ Previous exclusion criteria: 1. Children with a standard score above 90 on the SPELT-3, or 2. Children with above 6 on the CELF-5 Formulated Sentences subtest

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame
The creation of a grammar factor is assessed using the following measures at pre- and post-intervention in both the intervention and control groups: 1. Raw score on the SPELT-3 2. ACE narrative syntax raw score 3. Receptive grammar: TROG-E blocks passed 4. Three measures of grammatical accuracy and complexity in narratives (ERRNI – Story B) and ACE narrative combined): 4.1. Mean length of utterance (MLU) 4.2. Clausal density (number of clauses/number of utterances) 4.3. Grammatical errors per utterance	—

Measure

Time frame

The creation of a grammar factor is assessed using the following measures at pre- and post-intervention in both the intervention and control groups: 1. Raw score on the SPELT-3 2. ACE narrative syntax raw score 3. Receptive grammar: TROG-E blocks passed 4. Three measures of grammatical accuracy and complexity in narratives (ERRNI – Story B) and ACE narrative combined): 4.1. Mean length of utterance (MLU) 4.2. Clausal density (number of clauses/number of utterances) 4.3. Grammatical errors per utterance

—

Secondary

Measure	Time frame
Semantics, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics measured using the CELF-5 Formulated Sentences raw score at pre- and post-intervention in both the intervention and control groups	—

Countries

England, United Kingdom

Contacts

Public ContactSusan Ebbels

ebbelss@moorhouseschool.co.uk+44 (0)1883 712271

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ISRCTN (via WHO ICTRP) · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026