Strategic and Interactive Signing Instruction Experiment

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Status: Active, not recruiting

Conditions: Teacher Practice; Sign Language Skills

Treatments: Behavioral: Business-As-Usual Instruction; Behavioral: Strategic and Interactive Signing Instruction

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT06729164

451965

1R21DC021024-01A1 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

This RCT study involves teachers divided into an experimental group and a control group. Teachers in the experimental group will receive SISI training to support the sign language development of deaf children, while those in the control group will continue with "business-as-usual" teaching methods. Pre- and post-assessments will be conducted for all deaf children at the beginning and end of the school year.

Full description

This randomized controlled trial (RCT) examines the effects of the Strategic and Interactive Signing Instruction (SISI) intervention on deaf children's expressive language development in signing (primary) and writing (secondary). The study compares two groups - an intervention group implementing SISI and a control group continuing their usual instructional routines without the intervention.

The intervention group will include approximately 10 teachers, each working with 5-7 deaf children. These classrooms will implement the SISI intervention, which provides structured, language-centered supports designed to strengthen children's signing through explicit modeling, guided practice, and discourse-focused intervention routines. Schools that participated in the 2024-2025 nationwide pre/post study will be included in the intervention group for 2025-2026 if they choose to continue.

The control group will likewise include approximately 10 teachers with 5-7 Deaf children each. These classrooms will continue with their standard practices without the SISI intervention. Schools newly joining the project in 2025-2026 will be assigned to this group.

Child language data will be collected twice - fall 2025 (pre-test) and spring 2026 (post-test). Deaf children will complete three expressive language prompts representing major discourse types: personal narrative, informational report, and persuasive discourse. Their signed and written compositions will be analyzed using rubrics adapted from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), focusing on growth in discourse-level skills.

The study hypothesizes that deaf children in the intervention group will show greater gains in expressive signing and writing than their peers in the control group. This hypothesis reflects the expectation that a systematic, discourse-oriented language intervention offers stronger support for language development than typical intervention routines.

This research aims to contribute to the evidence base on interventions that support deaf children's expressive language development. By examining child-level language outcomes from a discourse-focused intervention, the study will advance understanding of how structured language support can strengthen signing and writing development for deaf children.

Enrollment: 150 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 4 to 12 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Deaf children in educational programs (aged 4-12)
• Teachers of the deaf working with deaf children

Exclusion criteria

• Non-deaf children
• Non teachers of the deaf

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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150 participants in 2 patient groups, including a placebo group

RCT - Experimental

Experimental group

Description:

This RCT study involves teachers divided into an experimental group and a control group. Teachers in the experimental group will receive SISI training to support the sign language development of deaf children, while those in the control group will continue with "business-as-usual" teaching methods. Pre- and post-assessments will be conducted for all deaf children at the beginning and end of the school year.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Strategic and Interactive Signing Instruction

Quasi-Experimental Study - Control

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

This quasi-experimental study involves teachers divided into an experimental group and a control group. Teachers in the experimental group will receive SISI training to support the sign language development of deaf children, while those in the control group will continue with "business-as-usual" teaching methods. Pre- and post-assessments will be conducted for all deaf children at the beginning and end of the school year.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Business-As-Usual Instruction