Enhancing Orthographic Communication and Literacy Outcomes for AAC Learners

Starting soon · Phase 1/Phase 2

Conditions studied: Literacy, Communication, Nonverbal

In brief

The goal of this clinical trial is to determine whether adding Integrated Decoding and Encoding instruction to the ALLSTAR literacy program improves reading outcomes for students with significant literacy and communication needs. The study will also examine how students' reading skills change over time across instructional conditions. The main questions it aims to answer are: Do students who receive ALLSTAR with Integrated Decoding and Encoding instruction demonstrate greater improvements in literacy outcomes than students who receive ALLSTAR as standard care alone? How do students' literacy skills change from baseline to mid-intervention and post-intervention across the two instructional conditions? Researchers will compare two groups using a randomized controlled trial design. One group will receive 60 lessons of ALLSTAR as the standard of care (ALLSTAR-SC), and the other group will receive 60 lessons of ALLSTAR with the addition of Integrated Decoding and Encoding lessons (ALLSTAR-I\*). Literacy outcomes will be measured using repeated assessment probes at baseline (0 Lessons), after 30-40 lessons, and after 60 lessons to evaluate differences between groups and changes over time in the individuals.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT07384156

Run by

Penn State University

People needed

60

Starts

2026-03-01

Expected to finish

2031-02-28

Last updated by the study team

2026-02-03

Who can join

Age: 5 and older, up to 12. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Have complex communication needs and use AAC,
• are ages 5-12,
• per report can follow two-step directions,
• symbolic communicators with at least 75 words on the CDI and mean length of utterance greater than 2
• can match letters and words with greater than 90% accuracy,
• can identify letter-sound correspondences from a field of 4 with greater than 70% accuracy
• can identify common photographs used to represent words in the study (e.g., touch the picture of a hat, touch hot) with greater than 80% accuracy,
• can sit to work in a minimum of 5 min. intervals
• decoding or encoding at less than 40% accuracy based on parent or provider report and screening results;
• demonstrate functional vision and hearing

You may not qualify if…

• • Do not have complex communication needs / can speak and do not need AAC,
• Younger than 5 or older than 12 years of age,
• Can not follow two-step directions,
• Are not symbolic communicators with at least 75 words on the CDI and not combining at least 2 symbols
• Can not match letters and words with >90% accuracy,
• Can not identify letter-sound correspondences from a field of 4 with greater than 70% accuracy
• Can not identify common photographs used to represent words in the study (e.g., touch the picture of a hat, touch hot) with greater than 80% accuracy,
• Can not attend to work for 5 mins.
• decoding or encoding at more than 40% accuracy based on parent or provider report and screening results;
• Do not have corrected or functional vision and hearing

Where it is running

• The Pennsylvania State University — State College, Pennsylvania, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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