Haug, T. (2011). Adaptation and Evaluation of a German Sign Language Test - A Computer-Based Receptive Skills Test for Deaf Children Ages 4-8 Years Old. Hamburg:  Hamburg University Press.

For more information regarding the DGS Receptive Skills Test, please contact  Tobias Haug directly. 

German Sign Language Receptive Skills Test

The need for German Sign Language (DGS) tests to be used in schools calls for the adaptation of a standardized sign language test. The objective of this study is to adapt the  British Sign Language Receptive Skills Test (Herman, Holmes, & Woll, 1999) into DGS.

A sample of 54 Deaf children ages 3;9 to 10;10 (M = 7;0) were tested on their comprehension of different morpho-syntactic structures in DGS, using a cross-sectional design. 34 children came from Deaf families, 20 from hearing families.

The results indicate sound psychometric properties (e.g., item and distractor analysis, Cronbach’s alpha) of the adapted DGS test. Using non-parametric statistics, variables such as the lengths of exposure to DGS, parental hearing status, and chronological age provided additional information explaining performance differences, which are important for a proposed standardization.

The findings, which serve as a basis for revisions prior to the standardization, entail important information on cultural, linguistic, methodological, and theoretical issues related to the adaptation of sign language tests from one sign language to another. This results in a proposed model for test adaptation and test development with the focus on construct validation.