Recruiting

Teacher Training Program

Sponsor:

Hugo W. Moser Research Institute at Kennedy Krieger, Inc.

Code:

NCT07103044

Conditions

Developmental Language Disorder

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 3 - 5

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

Early Achievements - Shaping Early Language and Literacy Skills

Study Details

Brief summary:

Language skills are important for long-term reading comprehension success. Yet there are limited instructional approaches available for prekindergarten (pre-K) teachers to use in their inclusive classrooms to boost literacy-related language skills in children with and without language delays or disorders.

In the first part of this study, the investigators will develop a teacher training program focused on building pre-K children's language-based literacy skills. Teachers will be trained and will use the strategies that they learn during literacy-related activities in their inclusive pre-K classrooms. Their students' language-related literacy skills will be measured before and after their training. Based on teacher feedback and child assessment information, the training program will be revised. In the final part of the study, a preliminary randomized control trial (RCT) will be done using the revised training approach. The results of the RCT will help the investigators know if the teacher training program helps to improve the effectiveness of teachers' instruction and their students' development of language-related literacy skills.

The primary goal of this research study is to determine whether study-trained pre-K teachers in inclusive early childhood education classrooms use more effective teaching strategies than teachers who do not receive the training. A secondary goal of this research study is to determine if this teacher training program strengthens language-related literacy skills for students with and without language disorders or delays. The research team hypothesizes that teachers who participate in the training program will use effective teaching strategies more often than teachers who do not receive the training. Additionally, the investigators predict that teachers who receive the training will feel more confident teaching early language-based literacy skills to their students (with and without language delays/disorders) than teachers who do not receive the training. Researchers also predict that students taught by teachers who receive the training will perform better on language tests when compared to their peers in classrooms where the teacher training program was not used.

Conditions

Developmental Language Disorder

Study ID

NCT07103044

Start date

Aug 26, 2021

Status verified date

Jul, 2025

Completion date

Oct 31, 2026

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Sep 30, 2026

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 3 - 5

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria for Teachers

  • Having students in the identified age range
  • Having at least one child in their classroom who receives language-focused related services, has an existing diagnosis of language delay or disorder, or meets study criteria for DLD on the research measures
  • Planning to teach for the duration of the training period.

Inclusion Criteria for Students in the DLD group:

  • use phrases containing a noun and a verb in most spontaneous utterances (per teacher report)
  • are exposed to English >50% of their time at home (per parent report). receive language-focused related services, have a prior diagnosis of language delay or disorder, or meet study criteria for language delay on the CELF P-3 and/or CUBED NLM.
  • CELF P-3: score more than 1 standard deviation below the mean on at least one subtest
  • NLM criteria: receives two Listening Retell score raw score of <5 on Fall measures or <7 on Winter measures
  • between approximately 45-65 months of age

Inclusionary criteria for students in the TD group:

  • cannot have an identified DLD or developmental disability and does not meet above criteria for language delay/disorder
  • between approximately 45-65 months of age.
  • are exposed to English >50% of their time at home (per parent report)

Exclusion Criteria:

Exclusionary criteria for both the DLD group and TD group:

  • having a visual or hearing impairment after correction (per parent report)
  • having a motor impairment that renders them unable to reach and grasp objects or sit independently
  • score more than1.5 standard deviation below the mean on the Mullen Scales of Early Learning Visual Reception subscale
  • This criterion will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis at the PI's discretion as children's performance may be affected by any of a number of factors and a single response variation may result in a child missing the cut-off while clearly succeeding cognitively in the classroom.

Study Design

Enrollment

360 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Treatment

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Experimental: Full Training Group

Teachers assigned to the Full Training group will participate in a collaborative coaching approach, Practice-Based Coaching (Snyder et al., 2015). Coaches will support teachers in targeting meaning-related (language-based) emergent literacy skills during whole and small group interactions with their students. The duration of the coaching period is approximately 14 weeks with about one coaching session per week. Teachers will be coached to implement Early Achievements-Shaping Early Language and Literacy Skills (EA-SHELLS) strategies during book reading and book-related activities. See more details about the instructional approach below in the intervention description.

no intervention: No Intervention: Quick Training Group

Teachers assigned to the Quick Training group will not receive any training or intervention while data are being collected from both groups. Teachers in this group will conduct their classroom instruction as originally planned while the teachers in the Full Training group receive the EA-SHELLS training. After the completion of data collection, teachers will be invited to participate in a collaborative coaching approach, Practice-Based Coaching (Snyder et al., 2015). Coaches will support teachers in targeting meaning-related emergent literacy skills during whole and small group interactions with their students for 2 coaching sessions. Teachers will be coached to implement EA-SHELLS strategies during book reading and book-related activities. Teacher data will be collected during the quick training period but will be analyzed separately from RCT data used to examine efficacy of EA-SHELLS.

Interventions

Early Achievements - Shaping Early Language and Literacy Skills

EA-SHELLS is a professional development program that includes a 6-hour workshop and about 14 in-person coaching sessions using Practice-Based Coaching. Teachers will implement the EA-SHELLS instructional approach in their classrooms during whole-group book sharing activities to target vocabulary, syntax, story grammar, and listening comprehension. Teachers will also lead story retelling activities using pictures cards and 3D props to further target all four skills. Teachers will be provided with commercially available children's books augmented with supplemental text to explicitly define vocabulary and cue teachers' elicitation of children's verbal engagement for targeted vocabulary, syntactically elaborated sentences, and story grammar elements. Instructional strategies include naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention and language facilitating (e.g., focused stimulation) strategies. Teachers will read each provided book about four times over one to two weeks.

Primary outcome measure

  • Assessment of Story Comprehension (ASC) [ Time Frame: Baseline and post 14-week training period ]
  • Narrative Language Measure - Listening (NLM) [ Time Frame: Baseline ]
  • Vocabulary Assessment [ Time Frame: Baseline and post 14-week training period as well as every 2-4 weeks during the training period. ]
  • The Narrative Assessment Protocol-Second Edition (NAP-2) [ Time Frame: Baseline and post 16-week training period ]
  • Expressive Vocabulary Test, Third Edition (EVT-3; Williams, 2019) [ Time Frame: Baseline (served as a participant characterization measure). ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Rebecca Landa, PhD

443-923-7591landa@kennedykrieger.org

Shaylee Woods, MS

woodsh@kennedykrieger.org

Locations

Kennedy Krieger Institute

Recruiting

Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 21211

Contacts

Rebecca Landa, PhD

443-923-7584landa@kennedykrieger.org

Ebony Holliday, PhD

4439237724hollidaye@kennedykrieger.org

Principal Investigator:

Rebecca Landa, PhD

More Information

Sponsor

Hugo W. Moser Research Institute at Kennedy Krieger, Inc.

Last update posted

Aug 5, 2025

Last verified

Jul, 2025

Keywords

  • Literacy
  • Reading
  • Language
  • Education

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Hugo W. Moser Research Institute at Kennedy Krieger, Inc. on 2025-08-05.