Assessments
Informal Assessment for Language Deprivation
This informal assessment is designed for Deaf children with incomplete first language acquisition due to language deprivation. It helps practitioners gather information about the child’s expressive abilities at both the single-word and short-sentence levels, as well as identify any errors in their productions. The assessment includes 150 vocabulary items (30 animals, 30 food, 30 objects, 30 people, and 30 verbs) and 20 syntax items (10 SV and 10 SVO structures).
Includes:
Electronic stimuli
A fillable PDF for data collection
Additional data sheets to document phonological, semantic, morphological, and articulatory errors noted
Sample student data
Sample write-up for your report
Instructional video in ASL and English on how to use the assessment
Note: We strongly recommend providers who are not fluent in ASL co-administer and co-analyze this assessment with a native ASL speaker.
American Sign Language Articulation Test (ASL-AT)
This informal assessment is intended to gather information about how a Deaf child articulates words in American Sign Language (ASL). Because this is an articulation test and not a language test, the practitioner may prompt the student to elicit the target word, or simply model the target word and ask the student to copy it. The test contains digital stimuli, printable and digital data collection sheets, and embedded videos of a Deaf model signing the target stimuli.
The assessment also contains a summary sheet that is intended to help identify which motor skills the student struggled with. The practitioner takes the data recorded during the assessment and inputs it into the summary sheet. Then, trends or patterns in the student’s errors may become clear. For example, you may notice that the student incorrectly signed all the stimulus words that required elbow flexion.
