Single Case Research Design: Deaf Children's Language Outcomes

Eight deaf children in kindergarten to 3rd grade classes will be randomly selected for single case research. Their language skills will be monitored and assessed daily. Using a noncurrent multiple baseline design (Single Case Research Design or SCRD), Strategic and Interactive Signing Instruction (SISI) will be administered to two children in each of four classes.

Study Overview

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Conditions: Language Development
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Strategic and Interactive Signing Instruction

Detailed Description

A randomized selection method will be employed to select deaf children to participate in single case research. Two children will be selected from each age group between 5 and 10, making a total of eight students. Their language skills will be closely monitored and evaluated over the course of the year. Following the noncurrent multiple baseline design, in succession across 8 child participants in 4 classes, 2 SCRD participants in a class will begin receiving SISI while other children remain in the baseline for 3 weeks. Brainstorming occurs on Monday and the final sign language composition is shared on Friday. At the end of each day's intervention, child participants will independently narrate their expressed message recorded on videos. A score of 1 (applied correctly), 0.5 (applied but incorrectly), or 0 (omitted) will be given to their inclusion of target sign language skills, which is converted into percentages. If a child receives 100% on their target SL skill for 3 consecutive days (3 data points), Teacher 1 will select a new sign language skill to target. If the child receives 0% or 50% on their target sign language skill, Teacher 1 continues to focus on the same sign language skill.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 8
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Tennessee
    • Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, 37996
      • University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Deaf children in kindergarten to 3rd grade class in a school for the deaf

Exclusion Criteria:

• Non-deaf children

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

4

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Single Case Research Design: Phase 3; A randomized selection method will be employed to select deaf children to participate in single case research. Two children will be selected from each age group between 5 and 10, making a total of eight students. Their language skills will be closely monitored and evaluated over the course of the year. Following the noncurrent multiple baseline design, in succession across 8 child participants in 4 classes, 2 SCRD participants in a class will begin receiving SISI while other children remain in the baseline for 3 weeks.	Behavioral: Strategic and Interactive Signing Instruction; Evidence-based instructional methods, grounded in cognitive, sociocultural, and linguistic theories, are applied to interventions that support sign language development in deaf children.
Experimental: Single Case Research Design: Phase 4; A randomized selection method will be employed to select deaf children to participate in single case research. Two children will be selected from each age group between 5 and 10, making a total of eight students. Their language skills will be closely monitored and evaluated over the course of the year. Following the noncurrent multiple baseline design, in succession across 8 child participants in 4 classes, 2 SCRD participants in a class will begin receiving SISI while other children remain in the baseline for 3 weeks.	Behavioral: Strategic and Interactive Signing Instruction; Evidence-based instructional methods, grounded in cognitive, sociocultural, and linguistic theories, are applied to interventions that support sign language development in deaf children.
Experimental: Single Case Research Design: Phase 1; A randomized selection method will be employed to select deaf children to participate in single case research. Two children will be selected from each age group between 5 and 10, making a total of eight students. Their language skills will be closely monitored and evaluated over the course of the year. Following the noncurrent multiple baseline design, in succession across 8 child participants in 4 classes, 2 Phase 1 participants in a class will begin receiving SISI while other children remain in the baseline for 3 to 9 weeks.	Behavioral: Strategic and Interactive Signing Instruction; Evidence-based instructional methods, grounded in cognitive, sociocultural, and linguistic theories, are applied to interventions that support sign language development in deaf children.
Experimental: Single Case Research Design: Phase 2; A randomized selection method will be employed to select deaf children to participate in single case research. Two children will be selected from each age group between 5 and 10, making a total of eight students. Their language skills will be closely monitored and evaluated over the course of the year. Following the noncurrent multiple baseline design, in succession across 8 child participants in 4 classes, three weeks after Phase 1 participants have begun SISI, Phase 2 participants in a class will begin receiving SISI while other children remain in the baseline.	Behavioral: Strategic and Interactive Signing Instruction; Evidence-based instructional methods, grounded in cognitive, sociocultural, and linguistic theories, are applied to interventions that support sign language development in deaf children.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Sign Language Skills	Deaf children's development of target sign language skills will be documented.	From enrollment to the end of treatment 9 academic months later.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• Collaborators: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): August 1, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): September 30, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): November 30, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 5, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 5, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): December 9, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): November 24, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 21, 2025
• Last Verified: October 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Intervention; Deaf; Sign Language
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavior; Communication; Nonverbal Communication; Language; Manual Communication; Sign Language
• Other Study ID Numbers: 478857; R21DC021024 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Under a data-sharing agreement that is in compliance with the internal policy at UTK, non-identifying data can be shared with other researchers for a minimum of 10 years on the University of Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange (TRACE). The raw data consists of videos of teachers, which will not be shared to maintain confidentiality. The processed data will be in the form of percentages for individual teachers across an academic year documented in a .csv file (Excel). Center for Open Science Foundation (OSF) is a free and open source project management tool that supports researchers throughout their entire project lifecycle. OSF also allows people to locate this data through project names, author names, and study keywords.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: December, 2026 to December, 2036
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Researchers may contact the principal investigator for additional supporting information not available on OSF.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; ANALYTIC_CODE; CSR

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No