Early Achievements - Shaping Early Language and Literacy Skills

Official title

Developing Early Achievements for Pre-K Children With Developmental Language Disorders: A Comprehensive Contextualized Embodied Approach

Overview

Language skills are important for long-term reading comprehension success. Yet there are limited instructional approaches available for prekindergarten (pre-K) teachers to use in their inclusive classrooms to boost literacy-related language skills in children with and without language delays or disorders. In the first part of this study, the investigators will develop a teacher training program focused on building pre-K children's language-based literacy skills. Teachers will be trained and will use the strategies that they learn during literacy-related activities in their inclusive pre-K classrooms. Their students' language-related literacy skills will be measured before and after their training. Based on teacher feedback and child assessment information, the training program will be revised. In the final part of the study, a preliminary randomized control trial (RCT) will be done using the revised training approach. The results of the RCT will help the investigators know if the teacher training program helps to improve the effectiveness of teachers' instruction and their students' development of language-related literacy skills. The primary goal of this research study is to determine whether study-trained pre-K teachers in inclusive early childhood education classrooms use more effective teaching strategies than teachers who do not receive the training. A secondary goal of this research study is to determine if this teacher training program strengthens language-related literacy skills for students with and without language disorders or delays. The research team hypothesizes that teachers who participate in the training program will use effective teaching strategies more often than teachers who do not receive the training. Additionally, the investigators predict that teachers who receive the training will feel more confident teaching early language-based literacy skills to their students (with and without language delays/disorders) than teachers who do not receive the training. Researchers also predict that students taught by teachers who receive the training will perform better on language tests when compared to their peers in classrooms where the teacher training program was not used.

Detailed description

The primary goal of this research study is to determine whether Early Achievements - Shaping Early Language and Literacy Skills (EA-SHELLS) training improves teachers' implementation of the EA-SHELLS instructional approach in their inclusive prekindergarten (pre-K) classrooms. A secondary purpose of this research study is to determine the effects the EA-SHELLS instructional approach on pre-K children's (with and without language disorders/delays) language-related emergent literacy skills (vocabulary, syntax, narrative representation, and listening comprehension). The investigators hypothesize that teachers who participate in the EA-SHELLS professional development program will show greater use of evidence-based instructional strategies (the EA-SHELLS approach) and greater self-efficacy relating to language-related literacy instruction compared to teachers who do not receive the training. Additionally, the investigators predict that students taught by teachers receiving the training will perform better on testing measures when compared to their peers who do not receive supported classroom instruction.

An iterative development process was utilized for this study. Phase 1 (initial development and implementation) and Phase 2 (iterative development and implementation of the intervention) took place prior to this clinicaltrials.gov submission. A total of 17 teachers and 87 students completed the full research program in these phases. Preliminary results show significant positive outcomes on student and teacher measures.

In Phase 3 (randomized control trial), investigators will further test the above hypotheses by collecting data from teacher and student participants at pre-treatment, midpoint, and post-treatment time points in comparison to teachers and students who do not receive the training. The duration of the study will last approximately 14 weeks. Teachers may be randomly assigned to receive either the full training or no training until after post-treatment data are collected. Teachers in the EA-SHELLS trained group will attend the 6-hour virtual EA-SHELLS workshop and participate in approximately 14 in-person coaching sessions. During this EA-SHELLS training period, data will be collected on teacher and student participants in both arms of the trial.

Interventions

• Behavioral Early Achievements - Shaping Early Language and Literacy Skills
  EA-SHELLS is a professional development program that includes a 6-hour workshop and about 14 in-person coaching sessions using Practice-Based Coaching. Teachers will implement the EA-SHELLS instructional approach in their classrooms during whole-group book sharing activities to target vocabulary, syntax, story grammar, and listening comprehension. Teachers will also lead story retelling activities using pictures cards and 3D props to further target all four skills. Teachers will be provided with

Primary outcome measures

• Assessment of Story Comprehension (ASC) [Time frame: Baseline and post 14-week training period]
• Narrative Language Measure - Listening (NLM) [Time frame: Baseline]
• Vocabulary Assessment [Time frame: Baseline and post 14-week training period as well as every 2-4 weeks during the training period.]
• The Narrative Assessment Protocol-Second Edition (NAP-2) [Time frame: Baseline and post 16-week training period]
• Expressive Vocabulary Test, Third Edition (EVT-3; Williams, 2019) [Time frame: Baseline (served as a participant characterization measure).]

Secondary outcome measures (12)

• Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals - Preschool, 3rd Edition (CELF-P3) [Time frame: Baseline and post 14-week training period]
• Teacher Book and Book-Related Activity Fidelity [Time frame: Baseline and post 14-week training period as well as 1-3 times during the training period]
• Teacher Satisfaction and Feasibility Survey [Time frame: Post 14-week training period.]
• The Barriers Checklist [Time frame: Post 14-week training period.]
• The Teacher Consumer Review Form [Time frame: Post 14-week training period.]
• The Self-Efficacy Scale [Time frame: Post 14-week training period.]
• Teacher Self-Rating of Coaching Impact [Time frame: Post 14-week training period]
• Adapted Texas Christian University Workshop Evaluation Form [Time frame: Baseline, after the initial workshop training.]
• Demographic Forms [Time frame: Baseline]
• EA-SHELLS Home Survey [Time frame: Baseline]
• Teacher Rating of Oral Language and Literacy (TROLL), adapted [Time frame: Baseline]
• Focus Group Feedback [Time frame: Baseline and post 14-week training period]

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion Criteria for Teachers

• Having students in the identified age range
• Having at least one child in their classroom who receives language-focused related services, has an existing diagnosis of language delay or disorder, or meets study criteria for DLD on the research measures
• Planning to teach for the duration of the training period.

Inclusion Criteria for Students in the DLD group:

• use phrases containing a noun and a verb in most spontaneous utterances (per teacher report)
• are exposed to English >50% of their time at home (per parent report). receive language-focused related services, have a prior diagnosis of language delay or disorder, or meet study criteria for language delay on the CELF P-3 and/or CUBED NLM.
• CELF P-3: score more than 1 standard deviation below the mean on at least one subtest
• NLM criteria: receives two Listening Retell score raw score of <5 on Fall measures or <7 on Winter measures
• between approximately 45-65 months of age

Inclusionary criteria for students in the TD group:

• cannot have an identified DLD or developmental disability and does not meet above criteria for language delay/disorder
• between approximately 45-65 months of age.
• are exposed to English >50% of their time at home (per parent report)

Exclusion criteria

Exclusionary criteria for both the DLD group and TD group:

• having a visual or hearing impairment after correction (per parent report)
• having a motor impairment that renders them unable to reach and grasp objects or sit independently
• score more than1.5 standard deviation below the mean on the Mullen Scales of Early Learning Visual Reception subscale
• This criterion will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis at the PI's discretion as children's performance may be affected by any of a number of factors and a single response variation may result in a child missing the cut-off while clearly succeeding cognitively in the classroom.

Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.

Healthy volunteers: Yes

Study design

Allocation

Randomized

Model

Parallel assignment

Masking

Single blind

Primary purpose

Treatment

Study locations

United States · 1 center

• Kennedy Krieger Institute — Baltimore

Identifiers

NCT: NCT07103044 · IRB00294058 · R324A210031

Primary sources (government registries)

• ClinicalTrials.gov (US NIH)

View this study on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗