Assessing Literacy in Deaf Individuals: Neurocognitive Measurement and Predictors

271 Pages·2012·1.673 MB·English

by  Elizabeth Halper, Thomas Allen, Donna A. Morere (auth.), Donna Morere, Thomas Allen (eds.)

Assessing Literacy in Deaf Individuals

Donna A. Morere (cid:129) Thomas Allen
Editors
Assessing Literacy
in Deaf Individuals
Neurocognitive Measurement and Predictors
Editors
Donna A. Morere Thomas Allen
Department of Psychology Science of Learning Center
Gallaudet University Gallaudet University
Washington , DC, USA Washington , DC, USA
ISBN 978-1-4614-5268-3 ISBN 978-1-4614-5269-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-5269-0
Springer New York Heidelberg Dordrecht London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012951414
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Preface
Construction requires tools. Whether we are constructing a house, an educated citi-
zen, or a scienti fi c theory, we will be stymied if we do not have the right tools.
However rich our raw materials are, they are mere bits and scraps of unrealized
potential if we lack the means of assembling them into the products we envision.
Imagine a carpenter arriving at Home Depot, her truck already full of lumber, and
fi nding an empty tool counter. Her house will go unbuilt.
The building that we are seeking to construct is a strong foundation of knowl-
edge regarding the cognitive underpinnings of how deaf individuals learn, espe-
cially how they acquire literacy. Our truck is indeed full of raw materials: reading
researchers have, in recent years, made great strides in describing how literacy is
acquired in hearing individuals; neuroscientists have made considerable progress in
identifying the neural networks involved in reading and cognition; cognitive scien-
tists have greatly increased our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of
memory, executive functioning, visuospatial reasoning, and other processes.
Yet, we strongly suspect that the applicability of this burgeoning knowledge to
the very unique population of deaf individuals has limitations. When an individual’s
primary source of information about the world is through vision, the processes
through which he navigates the world, learns to read, and acquires knowledge are
quite different from those of individuals who hear as well as see their world. How
do we understand those differences? How do we come to understand how visual
knowledge, in the absence (or near absence) of auditory knowledge, affects the
development of cognitive functions and the acquisition of language? How do visual
languages contribute to literacy?
These questions are important, not only for improving the lives of deaf individu-
als but for enriching our understanding of learning for all individuals. But, of course,
we need the right tools to answer these questions. Unfortunately, the myriad of
assessments that have contributed remarkably to the growing knowledge base for
understanding cognitive development for hearing individuals cannot simply be
administered to deaf individuals (either in research, clinical, or educational settings)
with con fi dence in the validity of the scores. The uniqueness of deaf individuals’
perceptual experiences, their linguistic histories, and their social and cultural backgrounds
v
vi Preface
mandates an intensive effort to reengineer many commonly utilized assessment prac-
tices so that they will yield information that can be accepted and interpreted without
hesitation. Additionally, a battery of new assessments will also be necessary to mea-
sure visual language skills, since these skills play a critical role in the lives of many
deaf individuals.
The Toolkit project described and presented in this book represents a step in
pursuit of effective and valid cognitive, linguistic, and achievement assessments for
deaf individuals. This project was undertaken at the Science of Learning Center in
Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2) at Gallaudet University. VL2 is one of
six national centers funded by the National Science Foundation to address questions
that are of critical concern for the Science of Learning. VL2 was funded (in 2006)
to pursue answers to the questions posed above; i.e., to contribute to our knowledge
of how visual languages and the unique sensory and perceptual experiences of deaf
individuals contribute to their brain development, their cognitive capacities, their
language development, and their acquisition of literacy.
From the beginning days of VL2, it was evident that we would need to devote
our energies to the development of tools for our scienti fi c work. We also knew that
there were critical needs for better assessments among practitioners in fi elds of deaf
education and clinical practice. As well, we understood that there was considerable
overlap between the needs for assessments that would serve the needs of researchers
and those that would serve the needs of practitioners. Center scientists representing
different disciplines met to discuss the different assessment needs of the Center and
to suggest existing instruments, discuss tests that could be modi fi ed or adapted for
use for this population, and outline needs for new visual language assessments.
The result of these discussions was the VL2 Toolkit Project. In this project, we
assembled a variety of assessments into a comprehensive battery and designed a
project wherein we would administer the entire battery to the same group of project
participants. This design would allow us to evaluate the underlying systems of cor-
relations among measures of general cognitive functioning, including executive
functioning, visuospatial abilities, short-term and working memory, reading com-
prehension, math and writing fl uency and general academic knowledge, and expres-
sive and receptive language skill. The data would allow us to speak to the issues of
reliability and both concurrent and construct validity, and also give us an opportu-
nity to examine the underlying covariance structure of a broad set of measures.
This book presents the fi ndings from the VL2 Toolkit project. In these chapters,
each Toolkit measure is described, and a statistical analysis is presented that speaks
to the psychometric properties of the measure. Thus, the descriptions should be use-
ful both for readers interested in a compendium of measures that have been used and
studied successfully with this population, and for readers interested in understand-
ing some of the technical properties of these tools when administered to this popula-
tion. Chapters 1 and 2 present a more detailed discussion of the rationale for the
project, describe the procedures used in conducting the project, and display the
background characteristics of the individuals who participated in the project.
Chapter 3 presents the fi ndings for Toolkit measures of general cognitive function-
ing. Chapter 4 discusses the measures selected for assessing visuospatial ability.
Preface vii
Chapter 5 offers the analyses and descriptions for measures of short-term memory,
working memory, and signed verbal learning. Chapter 6 discusses the fi ndings for
four separate measures of reading. Chapter 7 presents the results of other areas of
academic achievement, including writing and math fl uency and general academic
knowledge. Chapter 8 discusses measures of expressive language, while Chapter 9
discusses measures of receptive language. Chapters 1 0 – 12 delve more deeply into a
variety of issues having to do with visual languages and visual representations of
English: Chapter 10 discusses fi ngerspelling and presents some descriptive data
based on an analysis of the error patterns of Toolkit participants on the fi ngerspelling
test. Chapter 1 1 presents a discussion of considerations in the development of tests
of American Sign Language and provides short descriptions of existing measures
that are currently in use and under development. Chapter 12 describes an innovative
strategy for using the written responses of participants to the speechreading test as
a window on deaf students’ writing strategies. In Chapter 1 3 , we present the results
of a factor analysis of the toolkit measures in an effort to identify underlying cognitive
structures for this population, and we use the resulting factor scores combined with
data from the project background questionnaire to explore the interrelationships
among selected background characteristics and performance on the derived neu-
rocognitive factors.
We acknowledge the support and participation of many in both conducting the
Toolkit Project and in producing this manuscript. We especially thank the National
Science Foundation for their signi fi cant support in establishing the VL2 Center
(under Cooperative Agreement SBE -0541953). We are indebted to the scientists
from the Center who contributed to the selection of instruments and the design and
execution of the project, especially Dr. Peter Hauser and Dr. Diane Clark. VL2’s
data assistant Selina Agyen expertly organized all project recruitment and schedul-
ing. We bow deeply to the hard working group who helped prepare the testing mate-
rials, particularly former student, Dr. Christen Szymanski, and the team of student
and postdoc assessors, which included Assessment Coordinator Leah Murphy,
Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Shilpa Hanumantha, Predoctoral Fellow Wyatte Hall, and
graduate assistants Yunjae Hwang, Millicent Musyoka, and Greg Witkin. Finally,
we are deeply grateful to the 90 Gallaudet student participants, many of whom
endured over 9 h of testing spread out over 3 days. Their contributions to this project
are in evidence on every page of this book.
Washington, DC, USA Donna A. Morere
Washington, DC, USA Thomas Allen

About the Editors
Donna A. Morere, Ph.D., has been involved in the fi eld of deafness since 1986. She
has been a faculty member in the Clinical Psychology Program at Gallaudet since
August, 1990. She is the Neuropsychological Assessment Director for the VL2
Psychometric Toolkit Study and Early Education Longitudinal Study (VL2EELS).
Dr. Morere also maintains a private practice in Clinical Neuropsychology providing
services to individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing using ASL, Cued Speech, or
Oral communication. Since the early 1990s, the focus of this practice has been chil-
dren with complex special needs, primarily those affecting language development.
Dr. Morere’s research interests include primary language disorders in deaf children,
adaptation of neuropsychological assessment instruments for use with deaf and hard
of hearing individuals, cognition and memory, executive functioning and attention
disorders, and reading and language development in deaf children.
Thomas Allen, Ph.D., is the Founding Director of the VL2 Center and currently serves
as its Co-Principal Investigator. He holds a faculty appointment in the Department of
Educational Foundations and Research, where he has taught courses in statistics and
research design. Dr. Allen formerly served a 9-year term as Dean of the Graduate
School at Gallaudet. Prior to becoming Dean, Dr. Allen was the Director of the
Gallaudet Research Institute, where he conducted or supervised many large-scale
statistical studies of the deaf population in the USA. These included an annual survey
of deaf and hard of hearing children and youth and two national efforts to develop
norms for standardized achievement tests for the population of deaf and hard of hearing
students. He designed and conducted studies of national patterns of classroom com-
munication strategies for deaf and hard of hearing students, and a longitudinal study of
school-to-work transition for students who are deaf. As the Dean of the Graduate
School, Dr. Allen has implemented Ph.D. programs in Linguistics and Audiology, an
Au.D. professional doctorate in Audiology, a Master of Arts in Teaching that focuses
on preparing teachers to work in bilingual ASL-English environments, a Master of Arts
degree in International Development, and a Master of Arts degree in Deaf Studies. He
is currently the lead investigator for a several ongoing research projects at the Visual
Language and Visual Learning (VL2) Center at Gallaudet University.
ix