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. 2016 Apr;21(2):200-12.
doi: 10.1093/deafed/enw002. Epub 2016 Feb 10.

Longitudinal Receptive American Sign Language Skills Across a Diverse Deaf Student Body

Jennifer S Beal-Alvarez  1
Affiliations

Longitudinal Receptive American Sign Language Skills Across a Diverse Deaf Student Body

Jennifer S Beal-Alvarez. J Deaf Stud Deaf Educ. 2016 Apr.

Abstract

This article presents results of a longitudinal study of receptive American Sign Language (ASL) skills for a large portion of the student body at a residential school for the deaf across four consecutive years. Scores were analyzed by age, gender, parental hearing status, years attending the residential school, and presence of a disability (i.e., deaf with a disability). Years 1 through 4 included the ASL Receptive Skills Test (ASL-RST); Years 2 through 4 also included the Receptive Test of ASL (RT-ASL). Student performance for both measures positively correlated with age; deaf students with deaf parents scored higher than their same-age peers with hearing parents in some instances but not others; and those with a documented disability tended to score lower than their peers without disabilities. These results provide longitudinal findings across a diverse segment of the deaf/hard of hearing residential school population.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
American Sign Language Receptive Skills Test group raw score mean for 30 students across 4 years by age cohort (out of 42 items). Note. DWD = deaf with disabilities; DODP = deaf of deaf parents.
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