Introduction to Signed Language Intervention for Speech-Language Pathologists

Course Description:

This is an intensive course running from June 22 - August 3, 2025. It is intended for speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to learn about intervention for Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children in ASL. Students will earn American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA) continuing education units (CEUs) as well as a certificate of completion indicating total course hours. At the conclusion of this course, students will have knowledge of linguistic analysis and intervention techniques in ASL that they can directly implement with their DHH students. This course is designed to be applicable to SLPs working with DHH students of all ages (birth-21). All students receive a copy of the ASL at Home curriculum as well as any intervention activity from the Language First intervention page.

This is a 6-week course that consists of two 3-week subcourses which build on each other. Coursework is primarily asynchronous, via Canvas, with 2-3 weekly synchronous sessions via Zoom.

ASL Linguistics:

This subcourse involves studying the linguistics of ASL. This requires an intermediate to intermediate-high level of ASL proficiency, so it’s important to take our self-assessment to ensure it is right for you. Students will learn about morphology and MLU, phonology, syntax, language analysis, and glossing in ASL.

Language Therapy in ASL:

In this subcourse, students will learn how to implement everything they learned in the previous subcourse in their language therapy in ASL. Students will learn about intervention techniques, language choice and code-switching, collaborating with Deaf professionals, modifying language level, and articulation. The final project allows participants to create their own intervention activity that they can use with their DHH students.

Language Fluency:

This course is taught in ASL. Only the very first and very last synchronous sessions will have interpreters, although many of the recorded lectures have voiced English interpretation. However, we still recommend that students have at least ASL level 3 abilities in order to enroll. You can check if the ASL level is right for you by watching this lecture and then taking this self-assessment.

Instructor Disclosures:

Financial disclosure: Leah and Razi are both receiving payment from Language First for teaching this course.

Nonfinancial disclosure: Leah and Razi are co-authors of the ASL at Home curriculum, which is offered as part of this course.

Learner Outcomes:

ASL Linguistics

Participants will be able to:

1. Recognize and describe ASL formational parameters (phonemes): construct examples of minimal pairs

2. Discuss relationship of formational parameters to markedness

3. Implement principles of markedness and phonemic awareness to language intervention

4. Demonstrate (emerging) master of glossing conventions as they pertain to clinical practice

5. Diagram the morphological structure of lexical signs and classifiers

6. Apply morphological analysis to assess students, evaluate progress, and/or write goals for clinical practice

7. Recognize and describe various ASL syntactic structures and features

8. Examine natural data to identify syntactic structures and patterns

9. Apply syntactic analysis to assess students, evaluate progress, and/or write goals for clinical practice

Language Therapy in ASL

Participants will be able to:

1. Utilize skills leans in the previous modules of the course for direct application in therapy

2. Demonstrate ability to create a therapeutic plan that addresses a student’s individual needs in ASL

3. Implement knowledge of ASL and ASL linguistics to plan purposeful, targeted interventions

4. Apply knowledge of ASL linguistics to goal writing and diagnostic intervention

5. Demonstrate (emerging) ability to differentiate between an articulation error and a phonological error

6. Utilize diagnostic intervention data to inform goal writing and therapy plans

7. Explain how to use therapeutic strategies for intervention in ASL with DHH children

8. Determine a DHH child’s language level in ASL

9. Demonstrate ability to modify intervention to meet the child’s linguistic needs

Registration information:

This is a digital purchase only; no physical ticket is provided. A form will populate for you to complete your registration and then your purchase will be added to your cart in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. You will receive an email confirmation of your payment as well as instructions on how to participate a few days prior to the event. Registration ends one week prior to the start of the course. Please email info@language1st.org with any questions.