Developing a Test of American Sign Language

There are many factors that may affect how well someone learns American Sign Language. It is an evolving, regional language. It may be learned formally or informally at different points in a person’s life. The learner may be Deaf or not, and have parents who are Deaf or not.

Educators and other professionals working with Deaf children needed a way to assess sign language ability that could take these factors into account.

Working with a team of sign language experts, Gargani + Company helped develop a test that could accomplish this.

It provided evidence that sign language develops differently for linguistically dissimilar groups of children. Understanding these differences made it possible for educators to interpret test results in ways that support learning.