Italian Sign Language Receptive Skills Test

The Italian Sign Language (LIS) Receptive Skills Test is an adaptation of the  BSL Receptive Skills Test (Herman, Holmes, & Woll, 1999). It has been adapted as part of a larger research project investigating the relationship between language and theory of mind (Surian & Tedoldi, 2005). The goal of this adapted LIS test was to assess the sign language development in Italian deaf children and to monitor the success of deaf education programs.


In the adaptation process, only one version of the test for Italian Sign Language was developed, despite regional variations in LIS. However, the only sign that showed regional variation was MOTHER, and this was replaced by a non-regional sign for WOMAN in LIS (Surian & Tedoldi, 2005).


With respect to the adaptation of the vocabulary check, the original BSL test includes 22 items, whereas in the adapted LIS test, only 21 were included because the two signs “boy” and “child” are different in BSL but not is LIS (Surian & Tedoldi, 2005). It also seems that there were some difficulties adapting all morphological aspects of BSL to LIS since LIS has a wider variety of negation forms than does BSL.


For the LIS test, the introduction and the items were refilmed in LIS and presented on a DVD. The original BSL test booklet that includes the pictures was used. In 2005, the adapted LIS test was administered to 80 deaf children of deaf parents aged 3-12 years old for a standardization. No information about whether a pilot has been conducted or about the psychometric properties of the adapted test has been reported.

 

AUTHOR

Summarized by Tobias Haug (2010).

For further information regarding this test, please contact  Luca Surian at the Unversity of Trento, Italy.