Assessing British sign language development
Sign bilingualism is one of several approaches to the education of deaf children in the UK Sign bilingualism seeks to introduce British Sign Language (BSL) to deaf children from an early age in order to establish a first language from which English, the majority language, can be acquired. However, there is little concensus on how deaf children's BSL development should be measured and no practical tools available to assist practitioners in this task. BSL assessments are needed to make baseline assessments, facilitate identification of language difficulties, indicate targets for remediation and evaluate the outcome of educational and therapy programmes for deaf children. This study describes the development of an assessment of British Sign Language development. Issues relating to the type of test required and which aspects of BSL to include are raised. Selection of subjects upon whom to base test development and standardisation are discussed. The BSL test of receptive grammar was initially piloted on 40 children from native signing backgrounds. Revisions were made to the test procedure and a number of unsuccessful items were eliminated prior to standardising the test on 135 children aged 3-13 years. Subjects
Herman, Rosalind
R Medicine
Assessing British sign language development. Sign bilingualism is one of several approaches to the education of deaf children in the UK Sign bilingualism seeks to introduce British Sign Language (BSL) to deaf children from an early age in order to establish a first language from which English, the majority language, can be acquired. However, there is little concensus on how deaf children's BSL development should be measured and no practical tools available to assist practitioners in this task. BSL assessments are needed to make baseline assessments, facilitate identification of language difficulties, indicate targets for remediation and evaluate the outcome of educational and therapy programmes for deaf children. This study describes the development of an assessment of British Sign Language development. Issues relating to the type of test required and which aspects of BSL to include are raised. Selection of subjects upon whom to base test development and standardisation are discussed. The BSL test of receptive grammar was initially piloted on 40 children from native signing backgrounds. Revisions were made to the test procedure and a number of unsuccessful items were eliminated prior to standardising the test on 135 children aged 3-13 years. Subjects
assessing british_sign language development sign bilingualism several approach education deaf_child sign bilingualism seek introduce british_sign_language_bsl deaf_child early age order_establish first_language english majority_language acquire however_little deaf_child bsl development measure practical tool available assist practitioner task bsl assessment need make baseline assessment facilitate identification language difficulty indicate target evaluate outcome educational therapy programme deaf_child study describe development assessment british sign_language development issues relate type test require aspect bsl include raise selection subject upon base test development standardisation discuss bsl test receptive grammar initially pilot child native signing background make test procedure number unsuccessful item eliminate prior standardise test child subjects