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Deaf children of hearing parents (DOH) are at risk for early language delays (ELD) due to environmental and etiological factors, compounding the previously reported higher incidence of ELD in deaf children of deaf parents (DOD) compared to the general population. Archival data from the online database of the Visual Communication and Sign Language Checklist yielded 147 ratings of DOH 3- to 5-year-old children whose parents reported American sign language (ASL) being used in the home at least equally to spoken language. Research goals included (1) examining the incidence of ELD in this cohort, (2) investigating differences in outcomes based on the scaling method used, (3) exploring patterns among the ratings of DOH children identified with ELD, (4) comparing the DOH outcomes to published DOD data, and (5) investigating differences between ratings and individual children. The DOH outcomes suggested an incidence of ELD twice that of the previous DOD sample, with a higher percentage of more severe delays. Even DOH children not identified with ELD demonstrated less well-developed ASL skills than their DOD peers. This emphasizes the need for ongoing monitoring of early ASL skills to allow for early identification of needs and adjustment of interventions to address ASL development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The Deaf community in the United States is recognized as a unique linguistic and cultural minority group. However, there are almost no American Sign Language (ASL) cognitive screening measures for this population (Dean et al. 2009; Atkinson et al. 2015). This study approached the development of a valid and conceptually equivalent measure of cognitive functioning with the involvement of Deaf community support and feedback. Method: Measure development was conducted by a team of neuropsychologists and clinical psychology PhD students with expertise in ASL linguistics and Deaf culture. The formal linguistic development included two native Deaf signers, one Deaf Interpreter, and one Certified Deaf Interpreter. The measure was then administered to a pilot sample of 20, cognitively intact, Deaf adults (Age: M=40.10, SD=5.50) fluent in ASL. Results: The measure showed good internal reliability for preliminary analyses (α=.72, λ-2 =.77, KR20 =.75) and it positively correlated with ASL fluency as determined by the ASL-Comprehension Test (r(18)=.54, p=.01; Hauser et al. 2016). There were no significant correlations with self-reported educational attainment (r(18)=-.21, p=.39) or race/ethnicity (r(18)=-.11, p=.64). Conclusion: Preliminary analysis of an ASL cognitive screening measures developed for use with culturally Deaf signers shows promise. This is one of the first attempts to create such a measure in the United States and next requires further development and piloting with a sample of cognitively intact older adult Deaf signers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the mental health assessment of deaf clients and persons with diminished capacity in the U.S. It focuses on issues such as the interpretation of the results that may affect the validity and usefulness of psychological assessments with deaf individuals. It states that in evaluating people with diminished capacity, understanding the meaning of capacity and competency is important.