Project 3: Effectiveness of an Early Reading Intervention for Young Children with Intellectual Disabilities who Use or Need Augmentative and Alternative Communication
This project will evaluate the effectiveness of early reading interventions in kindergarten and first grade for AAC-users.
Project information
This project is lead by doctoral research fellow Annelin Köver.
The supervisors and project members are professor Anders Nordahl-Hansen, associate professor Kenneth Larsen, professor Kari-Anne Bottegård Næss, professor Hugo Cogo-Moreira, professor Anders Dechsling, professor David McNaughton, professor Peter Marschik, professor Sven Bölte, assistant professor Line-Britt Ulriksen, and doctoral research fellow Marthe Bilet-Mossige.
Funding: 14 493 000 NOK, through the Collaborative Project to Meet Societal and Industry-related Challenges by the Research Council of Norway.
Collaboration partners: Østfold University College, University of Oslo, University of South-Eastern Norway, Karolinska Institutet, Heidelberg University, Penn State University, and thirteen municipalities in Norway.
Studies in the project
Description
The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of early reading interventions in kindergarten and first grade. The intervention material is the Lesing for alle kindergarten and school adaptation.
A two-by-two factorial cluster-randomized controlled trial will be conducted in Norway during the final year of kindergarten and the first grade for children with ID who use or need AAC. Participants will be allocated one of four groups.
Group 1 will receive an early reading activities intervention in kindergarten and reading instruction in the first grade.
Group 2 will receive an early reading activities intervention in kindergarten and training as usual (TAU) in the first grade.
Group 3 will receive TAU in kindergarten and reading instruction in the first grade.
Group 4 will receive TAU both in kindergarten and in the first grade.
Trial registration: NCT07116200. Registered on 17 August 2025
The Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education Research (SIKT) approved the study in June 2025, SIKT registration number: 229545.
The project is considered to uphold current norms of research ethics and align with Østfold University College’s values by the Østfold University College's Committee for Project Advice and Evaluation The Research Ethics Council (Pre-Fer). The project falls outside the scope of the Health Research Act, cf. sections 2 and 4 a (REC, decision application number: 912476).