Online Video Training for Teachers to Improve Reading Skills in Children Using Augmentative and Alternative Communication

Not Applicable

• Conditions: Autism; Intellectual Disabilities

• Registration Number: NCT06766188
• Lead Sponsor: Ostfold University College

Brief Summary

The aim of this study is to investigate , via a randomized control trial (RCT), the effectiveness of an online video training platform designed for teachers to support the improvement of basic reading skills of children with intellectual disabilities (ID) who require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). This intervention will include 14 schools and 70 students with ID who require AAC age 6-14 years old. The research question is:

1) What is the difference between online video training and in-person training on improving word-level readig skills and phonological awareness?

The students will work with a reading material, Reading for All, that follow the strategies of Accessible Literacy Learning, developed by Janice Light and David McNaughton. Reading for All is based on the research of Janice Light and David McNaughton. The reading material are adapted for AAC-users and the students can answer with pointing or their AAC-systems. Teachers will implement the instructions at the students familiar place at school for three to five days, each week, for a year.

The reading material consist of tasks in sound blending, letter-sound correspondence, phoneme segmentation, sight words, shared reading and decoding. The teachers will use evidence based, systematic and explicit instructions and immediate and corrective feedback

Detailed Description

Children with disabilities who require AAC may experiance challenges in various areas development, including communication skills, speech, language, cognitive and conceptual development, literacy, social participation, access to education, and overall quality of lifte. Acquiring reading skills may lead to higher levels of communication. Students who require AAC may be more dependent on others to provide and teach symbols to represent their language. Acquireing reading skills, may incrace the possibility to independently express themselves, and increace their access to for example text based communication devices.

There is a laci of evidence-based reading material adapted for students with ID who require AAC.

Primary outcomes will be assessed six times every two months over one year. The reading test are based on the reading material, which will be validated before the beginning of the trial.

Secondary outcome: four-time points (baseline, fourth, eighth, and twelfth month).

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2024-11-25
• Study First Submitted: 2024-11-29
• Study First Submitted QC: 2025-01-03
• Study First Posted: 2025-01-09
• Status Verified: 2025-02
• Last Update Submitted: 2025-02-16
• Last Update Posted: 2025-02-19
• Primary Completion: 2025-03-17
• Study Completion: 2026-03-18

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: ENROLLING_BY_INVITATION
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 70

Inclusion Criteria

• ages 6-14 years,
• diagnosed with intellectual disability, confirmed by multidisciplinary assessments carried out by the Child rehabilitation service,
• not have a functional speech, i.e. require AAC to understand and make oneself understood,
• must use AAC as their primary form of communication,
• cannot follow ordinary curricula (LK20) but have their own education plan.

Exclusion Criteria

• having a severe visual impairment and not being able to decode single words (e.g., severe hearing impairment).

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Early reading skills outcome	From intervention start to the end of intervention at twelve months	Primary outcome will be assessed six times every two months over one year.; * Sound blending \[score ranging from 0 to 15\] involves testing the student's ability to combine individual sounds into words.; * Letter-sound correspondence \[score ranging from 0 to 25\] involves testing the students' ability to correspond between the sounds of speech (phonemes) and the written letters representing speech (graphemes).; * Phoneme segmentation \[score ranging from 0 to 20\] tests students' ability to segment the first phoneme of the word (e.g., s for sun).

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Reading outcome	From intervention start to the end of intervention at twelve months	The Secondary Outcome: four-time points (baseline, fourth, eighth, and twelfth month).; * Recognition of sight words \[score ranging from 0 to 20\] measures the student's ability to recognize words learned by sight.; * Decoding \[score ranging from 0 to 20\] evaluates students' ability to recognize the letters in the word, associate each letter with its corresponding sound, hold these sounds in sequence in working memory, blend the sounds to determine the word, retrieve the meaning of the word.
Vocabulary	From intervention start to the end of intervention at twelve months	The teachers will map the students communicative competance by using MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (MCDI before and after the reading intervention to measure development of vocabulary. Score range for word and gestures have 391 words and word and sentences have 731 words.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Østfold University College; 🇳🇴 Halden, Norway