Sign Language Skills, Teaching Behaviors
Conditions
Keywords
Sign language, Teacher training, Language deprivation
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.
Detailed description
Deaf children who reach the age of eight without a foundation in language have longitudinal struggles in the areas of receptive and expressive language, working memory, executive functions, literacy and academic skills, and behavioral, mental, social, and physical health. The lack of intervention programs targeting sign language competencies during the critical period of development is a critical barrier to making progress in preventing or addressing language delays in deaf children. 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. Cross-linguistic transfers between oral and writing skills within and across first and second languages are well-established in the literature. Taking these factors into account in addition to growing evidence that sign language skills positively predict literacy skills and may lead to improved health outcomes, it is critical to systematically support deaf children's sign language competences as early as possible. To address the identified critical barrier to progress, these are the aims of this project: (1) develop Strategic and Interactive Signing Instruction (SISI), an intervention program to target the development of sign language skills in deaf children aged 5-8; (2) refine SISI training and implementation protocols; and (3) test the efficacy of SISI in improving deaf children's sign language skills. First, a SISI manual will be developed for standardization and consistency in training, implementation, and fidelity. The SISI manual will include: (a) descriptions of strategic and interactive approaches and their new applications to develop sign language skills, (b) SISI intervention protocols, (c) SISI fidelity checklist, and (d) list of sign language skills that are targeted in SISI. Second, an experimental study will be conducted to assess the extent of training and support required from teachers to become proficient in SISI implementation. Meanwhile, child progress in meeting their target sign language skills will be monitored formatively, and modifications may be made in an iterative design fashion to strengthen the intervention design. Third, another experimental study will be applied to assess the efficacy of SISI in improving deaf children's sign language skills. Findings will provide robust data on the mechanisms of successful training dose, intervention design and fidelity, and data collection protocols in preparation for subsequent R01 application involving a large randomized controlled trial with sufficient statistical power to further strengthen evidence of SISI in improving deaf children's sign language skills along with examinations of cross-linguistic interactions in the written form. This project is innovative in its new applications of theory-driven strategic and interactive approaches to target sign language development in deaf children.
Interventions
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.
Sponsors
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
CROSSOVER
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Intervention model description
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.
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
4 Years to 99 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Deaf students in prekindergarten to 3rd grade classes * Teachers of the deaf in prekindergarten to 3rd grade classes
Exclusion criteria
* 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
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Sign Language Skills | From enrollment to the end of treatment 9 academic months later. | 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. |
| Teaching Behaviors | From enrollment to the end of treatment 9 academic months later. | Teachers' fidelity to SISI will be measured through the fidelity instrument. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Written Language | From enrollment to the end of treatment 9 academic months later. | Deaf children's application of genre-based trait skills in written language will be analyzed using the emergent writing stages and rubrics adapted from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) rubrics for standardized writing assessments. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed