Educational Testing for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students

Discussion about present-day concerns in special education often center on learning or attentional problems, but hearing impairment is a disability that also deserves special attention for classroom accommodation and critical analysis of educational assessment.  While not intrinsically an intellectual disability, hearing impairment has unique cognitive consequences on student performance.  Given that most classrooms and teaching techniques rely heavily on verbal communication, adaptations of materials, classroom environment, and communication techniques are necessary for success. 

Performance of deaf and hearing students on a test designed to measure overall intelligence in kids (the Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children) show two distinct domains of intelligence: language comprehension and visual-spatial organization.  This supports the notion that there are in fact 2 different constructs of intelligence.  Deaf learners show strengths in visuospatial recall, visual imagery, and dual encoding (memory for items when both sign and speech stimuli are presented simultaneously).  How do these strengths and weaknesses play out in the classroom?  Studies have shown that standardized test scores for a group or deaf students were significantly below the average for hearing students, despite meeting or exceeding average progress made by hearing students across all subjects.  This indicates that standardized tests aren’t always adequate measures of deaf students’ educational ability or classroom success.  Standardized tests used in the classroom to assess educational progress or overall aptitude should take the following issues into consideration:

Translation issues: most standardized tests do not have sufficient sign language translations.  Even when translated forms are available, test administrators can’t be sure that the question serves the same purpose and hits the same point in sign language as it was designed to serve in English.

Interpreters: not all school psychologists have adequate signing skills to administer a sign language translation of these tests.  In addition, studies have shown that over have of interpreters have inadequate skills to provide deaf students with full access to classroom resources and activities.

“Non-verbal” measures: many tasks that are said to measure non-verbal intelligence still rely on verbal communication to relay instructions, and play to the advantages of individuals who use verbal methods of encoding information into their memory.

Group comparisons: In order to score standardized tests, one must compare an individual’s score with a “norm” score, of the average score of a group.  Judging the comparison to a norm score is a crucial part of developing these tests.  If an individual is being tested on a standardized measure in a language other than the one in which it was designed (an ASL translation for a test designed in English), it may be more useful to compare scores to a group that was also tested using that language translation.

How can we address these concerns?

Psychologists can:

• Provide translations of current neuropsychological tests and educational assessments, and conduct research on whether or not English tasks can provide the same demands when presented in American Sign Language

• Provide more adequate interpreters to relay educational instructions and aid with the administration of educational assessments

• Research should be conducted to determine the most accurate comparison group for scores on ASL translations of tests

• Research on how the visual strengths of individuals can help their memory performance:                

I spent my semester studying how spatial presentations of information can improve the memory of deaf signers.  I compared the performance of hearing and deaf students on a list recall task that required them to remember the order of items on the list: a serial order span task.  Hearing individuals are usually able to remember more items from a list than deaf signers when asked to repeat the items in order.   Since the deaf tend to use their visuospatial skills, we thought they would remember the order of items better if they could view their order in space.  As it turns out, when the whole list was shown to the deaf students all at once from top to bottom (presenting the order in space), they were able to remember more items from the list.  The hearing students also remembered more items during the same task, still exceeding the memory of the deaf students (likely because their verbal abilities still give them an advantage).  Even though the deaf may not be able to reach the same processing level as the hearing on all activities, testing questions and educational material should still be designed to play to their visuospatial strengths.

**Author's note: the purpose of this creative project was to examine the literature on standardized testing for the hearing-impaired and communicate the issues surrounding deaf education to a general audience.  I also wanted to include the results of my thesis study as they pertained to this topic, since my family regularly asks me to explain my study in a simple way they can understand and explain to others.  I thought this would be a fun way to share the results and relevance of my work with people I know who aren’t as well-versed in the psychology terminology and literature.

References

Schick, B., Williams, K., & Kupermintz, H. (2005). Look who’s being left behind: Educational interpreters and access to education for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 11, 3-20. doi:10.1093/deafed.enj007

Antia, S. D., Jones, P. B., Reed, S., & Kreimeyer, K. H. (2009). Academic status and progress of deaf and hard-of-hearing students in general education classrooms. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 14, 293-311.  doi:10.1093/deafed/enp009

Sullivan, P.M., & Montoya, L.A. (1997). Factor analysis of the WISC-III with deaf and hard of hearing children. Psychological Assessment, 9, 317-321. doi:10.1037/1040-3590.9.3.317

Hamilton, H. (2011). Memory skills of deaf learning: Implications and applications. American Annals of the Deaf, 156, 402-423. doi:10.1353/aad.2011.0034

Reesman, J. H., Day, L. A., Szymanski, C. A., Hughes-Wheatland, R., Witkin, G. A., Kalback, S. R., & Brice, P. J. (2014). Review of intellectual assessment measures for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Rehabilitation Psychology, 59, 99-106. doi:10.1037/a0035829