An interventional study of Shape Coding in Hearing Loss, Bilateral, sponsored by Vanderbilt University. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 9 Years to 15 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-08-25.
Sponsored by Vanderbilt University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
The proposed research addresses a long-standing and important challenge of improving literacy skills of children who are deaf and hard of hearing, a historically under researched group. The investigators aim to leverage shape coding - an empirically validated intervention approach for constructing sentences in spoken English - for improving how efficiently children who are deaf and hard of hearing learn to correctly construct sentences in written English. To advance the promising yet underutilized research on shape coding, the investigators complete the next logical step of applying the visual supports provided with shape coding to written language for deaf and hard of hearing children. Shape coding has been effective for teaching sentence structure in spoken English to children with language disabilities and has recently been applied to sentence structure in American Sign Language with deaf and hard of hearing children. Intervention involving shape coding is predicted to result in increased accuracy of word order in sentences in written English because deaf and hard of hearing children often benefit from visual information. The investigators will accomplish this aim using single case multiple probe across participants design studies with 30 fifth through eighth grade children who are deaf and hard of hearing. The knowledge gained will guide language and literacy intervention for children who are deaf and hard of hearing.
55 studies on the registry are indexed under Hearing Loss, Bilateral; 17 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 30 is close to the median of 30 across 42 interventional studies indexed under Hearing Loss, Bilateral.
Browse Hearing Loss, Bilateral studies →Vanderbilt University is the lead sponsor of 522 studies on the registry; 20 are open to participants now.
Of its 8 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 5 (63%) have results posted.
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Exclusion Criteria:
Intervention will be introducing and utilizing Shape Coding to construct sentences.
Behavioral: Shape Coding
Intervention will include introducing and reviewing the relevant shapes from Shape Coding and the order in which the shapes go in a sentence. The researcher will then model how to put the word tiles in order according to the shapes. Next the researcher and student work together to construct sentences. The student is then given the opportunity to independently construct sentences using the word tiles and Shape Coding. At the end of instruction, the researcher and student review the shapes and the student has the opportunity to independently construct sentences without shape coding.
Proportion of children for whom the intervention is successful
The investigators will calculate the proportion of children for whom the intervention is successful, defined as at least 80% accuracy for 3 consecutive data collection days.
Time frame: Baseline to up to 8 weeks maximum
Proportion of children that generalize targeted skill to unpracticed words within targeted structure
The investigators will calculate the proportion of children that generalize the targeted skill to novel/unpracticed words within the targeted structure.
Time frame: Baseline to up to 8 weeks maximum
Proportion of children that generalize targeted skill to unpracticed modality within targeted structure
The investigators will calculate the proportion of children that generalize the targeted skill to an unpracticed modality (i.e., writing, typing) using practiced words within the targeted structure.
Time frame: Baseline to up to 8 weeks maximum.
Proportion of children that maintain targeted skill after intervention has ended
The investigators will calculate the proportion of children that maintain higher percent accuracy after intervention is removed compared to baseline
Time frame: Begins no more than 2 weeks after intervention phase ends; lasts up to 3 weeks
Plan to share: Undecided
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
Started Aug 2025 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Nov 2026, 15 months after the start.
Of 27 interventional studies with no phase under Hearing Loss, Bilateral, half reached primary completion within 20 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 6 and three quarters within 60. This study's planned 15 months is below that.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
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