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Empower EI: Sammenligning av tidlige intervensjonstilnærminger for å forbedre kommunikasjon hos småbarn med utviklingsforsinkelser

16. oktober 2026 oppdatert av: Megan Roberts, Northwestern University

This study is testing three ways to deliver Early Intervention (EI) services for toddlers with developmental disabilities (DD).

Children enrolled in EI speech therapy will receive one of three approaches:

  1. Therapist Delivered EI: For 28 weeks, the child's speech therapist will work directly with the child to support their communication.
  2. Caregiver Coaching EI: For 28 weeks, the child's speech therapist will coach the caregiver on how to support their child's communication.
  3. Combined EI Approach + Parent-Led Education Program: For 14 weeks, the caregiver will take part in a parent-led education program while the speech therapist works directly with the child to support their communication. During the next 14 weeks, the speech therapist will coach the caregiver on how to support their child's communication.

The goal of this study is to identify which approaches are most effective so that all families can benefit fully from EI services.

Studieoversikt

Detaljert beskrivelse

High-quality Early Intervention (EI) during the first three years of life, a period of heightened neuroplasticity, is critical to improving outcomes for children with developmental disabilities (DD). There are two EI approaches that may be effective for supporting child communication and improving family outcomes: 1) caregiver coaching, in which the EI therapist teaches the caregiver strategies to help their child's communication, and 2) caregiver psychoeducation, in which a peer mentor teaches the caregiver about skills and resources that are helpful in supporting their child and family.

The aim of the current clinical trial is to determine which EI approaches are most effective, for which families, and why they are effective. This clinical trial also aims to investigate how therapists are delivering the interventions and to characterize the acceptability and feasibility of these interventions for use in real-world settings.

A total of 1,269 toddlers (approximately equal numbers of Black, Latine, and white children) will be enrolled across community-based EI sites. Families will be directly recruited from participating EI therapists' existing caseloads. Caregiver-child dyads will be randomly assigned to one of three groups:

  1. Therapist Delivered EI: For 28 weeks, the child's speech therapist will work directly with the child to support their communication.
  2. Caregiver Coaching EI: For 28 weeks, the child's speech therapist will coach the caregiver on how to support their child's communication.
  3. Combined EI Approach + Parents Taking Action: For 14 weeks, the caregiver will take part in a parent-led education program (Parents Taking Action) while the speech therapist works directly with the child to support their communication. During the next 14 weeks, the speech therapist will coach the caregiver on how to support their child's communication.

Outcomes will assess both caregiver and child domains, including caregiver use of responsive strategies, caregiver capacity to support the child's needs, and child social communication. The study will also examine moderators (e.g., race) and mediators (e.g., caregiver use of responsive strategies) to identify for whom and why each approach is most effective.

A process evaluation will assess implementation fidelity (quality, dosage, adaptations) and explore how fidelity influences effectiveness outcomes. Feasibility, acceptability, and appropriateness of each approach will be evaluated through surveys and interviews with caregivers and EI therapists.

This study is among the first large-scale comparative effectiveness trials of early intervention approaches conducted in real-world EI settings. Findings will inform EI practices and guide caregivers, therapists, and policymakers in selecting interventions that best meet the needs and preferences of diverse families.

Studietype

Intervensjonell

Registrering (Antatt)

1269

Fase

  • Ikke aktuelt

Kontakter og plasseringer

Denne delen inneholder kontaktinformasjon for de som utfører studien, og informasjon om hvor denne studien blir utført.

Studiekontakt

Studiesteder

    • Illinois
      • Evanston, Illinois, Forente stater, 60201
        • Rekruttering
        • Northwestern University
        • Hovedetterforsker:
          • Megan Roberts, PhD
        • Ta kontakt med:

Deltakelseskriterier

Forskere ser etter personer som passer til en bestemt beskrivelse, kalt kvalifikasjonskriterier. Noen eksempler på disse kriteriene er en persons generelle helsetilstand eller tidligere behandlinger.

Kvalifikasjonskriterier

Alder som er kvalifisert for studier

1 år til 2 år (Barn)

Tar imot friske frivillige

Nei

Kjønn som er kvalifisert for studier

Alle

Beskrivelse

Child Inclusion Criteria:

  • At least 12 months old
  • Functional communication skills at an age equivalent of at least 6 months
  • At least 7 months of Early Intervention (EI) service eligibility remaining
  • Enrolled in the Illinois EI system and is new to the speech-language pathologist's (SLP's) caseload (i.e., no prior EI speech-language therapy experience with the SLP)
  • Plans to receive one hour of speech-language therapy per week in the home or in a private space outside of the home

Child Exclusion Criteria:

- Exposed to a language other than English or Spanish more than 10% of the time

Caregiver Inclusion Criteria:

  • The child's parent, legal guardian, or other family member
  • Self-identifies as Black, Latine (Hispanic), or white
  • Available to participate in weekly EI sessions and study assessments

Caregiver Exclusion Criteria

  • Younger than 18 years old at enrollment
  • Uses a language other than English or Spanish during their interactions with the child more than 10% of the time

Studieplan

Denne delen gir detaljer om studieplanen, inkludert hvordan studien er utformet og hva studien måler.

Hvordan er studiet utformet?

Designdetaljer

  • Primært formål: Behandling
  • Tildeling: Randomisert
  • Intervensjonsmodell: Parallell tildeling
  • Masking: Dobbelt

Våpen og intervensjoner

Deltakergruppe / Arm
Intervensjon / Behandling
Aktiv komparator: Therapist-Delivered Early Intervention Approach

For 28 weeks, this arm will receive the therapist-delivered early intervention approach.

The therapist-delivered early intervention approach will occur during the child's weekly, hour-long early intervention (EI) sessions. During the sessions, the child's EI speech-language pathologist (SLP) will use responsive strategies directly with the child. Responsive strategies focus on noticing the child's communication and responding with language related to their focus of attention. The SLP will not coach the caregiver during the sessions.

Eksperimentell: Caregiver Coaching Early Intervention Approach

For 28 weeks, this arm will receive the caregiver coaching early intervention approach.

The caregiver-coaching early intervention approach will occur during the child's weekly, hour-long early intervention (EI) sessions. During the sessions, the child's EI speech-language pathologist (SLP) will coach the caregiver to use responsive strategies with their child. Responsive strategies focus on noticing the child's communication and responding with language related to their focus of attention.

Eksperimentell: Combined Early Intervention Approach + Parents Taking Action

For the first 14 weeks, this arm will receive the therapist-delivered early intervention as well as Parents Taking Action. For the following 14 weeks, this arm will receive the caregiver coaching early intervention approach.

The therapist-delivered early intervention approach will occur during the child's weekly, hour-long early intervention (EI) sessions. During the sessions, the child's EI speech-language pathologist (SLP) will use responsive strategies directly with the child. Responsive strategies focus on noticing the child's communication and responding with language related to their focus of attention. The SLP will not coach the caregiver during the sessions.

The caregiver-coaching early intervention approach will occur during the child's weekly, hour-long early intervention (EI) sessions. During the sessions, the child's EI speech-language pathologist (SLP) will coach the caregiver to use responsive strategies with their child. Responsive strategies focus on noticing the child's communication and responding with language related to their focus of attention.

Parents Taking Action (PTA) will be delivered during weekly, one-hour virtual sessions with the caregiver, separate from the child's early intervention (EI) sessions. PTA is a psychoeducation program implemented by a peer mentor (i.e., a culturally-matched caregiver of a child with a developmental disability). During the sessions, the peer mentor will provide information and guidance on a range of topics (e.g., child development, early intervention systems, special education rights/resources, and advocacy) following a structured curriculum.

Hva måler studien?

Primære resultatmål

Resultatmål
Tiltaksbeskrivelse
Tidsramme
Responsive Strategy Use (RSU) Rating Scale
Tidsramme: Week 14, Week 28

The Responsive Strategy Use (RSU) Rating Scale will be used to measure caregivers' use of responsive strategies during a naturalistic, caregiver-child interaction. Items on the RSU Rating Scale are rated on a 4-point Likert Scale (0 = Rarely/Never, 3 = Consistently) and averaged to yield the RSU Total Score (Min = 0, Max = 3), with higher scores reflecting a higher frequency of responsive strategy use.

Week 14, Week 28
Family Outcomes Survey - Revised
Tidsramme: Week 14, Week 28

The Family Outcomes Survey-Revised is a 24-item informant-report questionnaire that assesses caregivers' understanding, confidence, and ability to support their child's needs. The Family Outcomes Total Score (Min = 24, Max = 120) reflects the caregiver's capacity to support their child's needs, with higher scores indicating greater capacity.

Week 14, Week 28
Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales - Developmental Profile (CSBS-DP)
Tidsramme: Week 28

The Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales - Developmental Profile (CSBS-DP) is a structured, norm-referenced, observational measure of child communication. The assessment is scored for 20 items across 7 domains (i.e., Emotion and Eye Gaze, Communication, Gestures, Sounds, Words, Understanding, Object Use). The weighted raw scores for each of the 7 domains are grouped into 3 clusters (social, speech, and symbolic) and combined into a total raw score (min = 0; max = 113). Higher scores indicate better skills.

Week 28

Sekundære resultatmål

Resultatmål
Tiltaksbeskrivelse
Tidsramme
Session Attendance
Tidsramme: Week 1 to Week 28

Session attendance will be documented in weekly session logs completed by interventionists and summarized as the percentage of planned intervention sessions attended by each family (Min = 0%, Max = 100%).

Week 1 to Week 28
Intervention Fidelity Checklist
Tidsramme: Week 1 to Week 28

The Intervention Fidelity Checklist is a rating scale assessing adherence to the intervention protocol. Items on the checklist correspond to the core elements of the respective intervention protocol and are scored based on specific behavioral criteria. The Intervention Fidelity Checklist will be scored on a randomly selected 20% of intervention sessions per participant. Scores will be averaged across sessions to yield an average intervention quality score (Min = 0, Max = 100), with higher scores indicating higher intervention quality.

Week 1 to Week 28
Framework for Reporting Adaptations and Modifications (FRAME)
Tidsramme: Week 1 to Week 28

The Framework for Reporting Adaptations and Modifications (FRAME) will be used to document intervention adaptations. Adaptations will be documented through intervention session logs and direct observations of intervention sessions. These data will yield the total number of adaptations (Min = 0, Max = NA).

Week 1 to Week 28

Andre resultatmål

Resultatmål
Tiltaksbeskrivelse
Tidsramme
Early Intervention Program Satisfaction Scale
Tidsramme: Week 14, Week 28

An adapted version of the Early Intervention Program Satisfaction Scale, a caregiver-report questionnaire, will be used to assess caregiver satisfaction. This survey includes 6 items rated on a 5-point Likert (1 = Very Dissatisfied, 5 = Very Satisfied). The Total Score (Min = 6, Max = 30) reflects caregivers' overall satisfaction with the intervention, with higher scores representing greater satisfaction.

Week 14, Week 28

Samarbeidspartnere og etterforskere

Det er her du vil finne personer og organisasjoner som er involvert i denne studien.

Etterforskere

  • Hovedetterforsker: Megan Roberts, PhD, Northwestern University

Studierekorddatoer

Disse datoene sporer fremdriften for innsending av studieposter og sammendragsresultater til ClinicalTrials.gov. Studieposter og rapporterte resultater gjennomgås av National Library of Medicine (NLM) for å sikre at de oppfyller spesifikke kvalitetskontrollstandarder før de legges ut på det offentlige nettstedet.

Studer hoveddatoer

Studiestart (Faktiske)

16. februar 2026

Primær fullføring (Antatt)

1. mars 2030

Studiet fullført (Antatt)

1. juni 2030

Datoer for studieregistrering

Først innsendt

11. november 2025

Først innsendt som oppfylte QC-kriteriene

11. november 2025

Først lagt ut (Faktiske)

13. november 2025

Oppdateringer av studieposter

Sist oppdatering lagt ut (Faktiske)

21. oktober 2026

Siste oppdatering sendt inn som oppfylte QC-kriteriene

16. oktober 2026

Sist bekreftet

1. oktober 2026

Mer informasjon

Begreper knyttet til denne studien

Plan for individuelle deltakerdata (IPD)

Planlegger du å dele individuelle deltakerdata (IPD)?

JA

IPD-planbeskrivelse

De-identified individual participant data (IPD) that underlie the results reported in any publication arising from this trial will be made publicly available via the Dryad repository. The shared dataset will include all variables necessary to reproduce the published findings, including treatment assignment, participant demographics, baseline characteristics, and outcome measures. All data will be de-identified in accordance with HIPAA standards and institutional policies to protect participant confidentiality.

Data will be uploaded to Dryad after publication of the primary results, and will be freely accessible to qualified researchers without restriction. A corresponding DOI will be provided in publications to facilitate data access and citation.

IPD-delingstidsramme

Data will be uploaded to the Dryad data repository on November 1st, 2030 and remain there indefinitely.

Tilgangskriterier for IPD-deling

De-identified individual participant data (IPD) and supporting documentation (e.g., data dictionaries, survey instruments, codebooks) will be publicly available to any researcher or member of the public. All data will be uploaded to the Dryad Digital Repository, where users can freely access and download the datasets. No special request or application will be required to access the IPD. The data will be shared in a de-identified format to protect participant privacy, and users will be able to access the IPD along with associated documentation necessary to understand and use the data for secondary analyses or replication studies.

IPD-deling Støtteinformasjonstype

  • ANALYTIC_CODE

Legemiddel- og utstyrsinformasjon, studiedokumenter

Studerer et amerikansk FDA-regulert medikamentprodukt

Nei

Studerer et amerikansk FDA-regulert enhetsprodukt

Nei

Denne informasjonen ble hentet direkte fra nettstedet clinicaltrials.gov uten noen endringer. Hvis du har noen forespørsler om å endre, fjerne eller oppdatere studiedetaljene dine, vennligst kontakt register@clinicaltrials.gov. Så snart en endring er implementert på clinicaltrials.gov, vil denne også bli oppdatert automatisk på nettstedet vårt. .

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