The performance of deaf students on a Test of American Sign Language Abilities - Receptive (TASLA-R)

The purpose of this study was to develop a test of American Sign Language abilities to measure the receptive skills of Deaf students in the areas of ASL phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics. A forty-item test was developed---the TASLA-R. Psychometric data on the TASLA-R was presented and it was found to be valid, reliable and practical for teachers to administer. Analyses of the number and type of errors on the TASLA-R were also presented. The test was administered to one hundred twenty three Deaf students, ages six to twenty two years, in four school settings across the U.S. Background variables related to the students' individual characteristics (ethnicity, gender, school placement), home communication (parent hearing status, presence of Deaf siblings, sign skill of parents), and Deaf-related clinical variables (etiology and hearing loss) were collected. Data on the students' performance on the SAT-9 Reading Comprehension, Reading Vocabulary, and Language were gathered. Age and IQ were used as covariates in all analyses. ANCOVA results indicated that students with at least one Deaf parent scored significantly higher than Deaf students with hearing parents. Other background variables were not significant. Pearson Product Moment Correlations and a Multiple Regression analysis indicated that reading comprehension on the SAT-9 contributed twenty percent to the TASLA-R scores. This study suggested the need for continued use of a revised TASLA-R with larger groups of Deaf students, the development of materials to increase Deaf students' performance in all areas of ASL, and for the use of ASL curricula in schools for the Deaf.