The purpose of this section is to provide a list of assessments that can be used to determine the need for instruction or for assessing student progress in the PA Expanded Core Competencies for Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing (PA ECC-DHH) content areas. Assessments are listed only as a suggestion. Assessment of subskills may be completed informally or formally. You are encouraged to find additional assessments, including teacher made assessments and other ways to measure student progress. The lists below group possible assessments for each content area and include publishers and links to their websites, current as of August 2023.
ECV-DHH: Explicit Contextualized Vocabulary (2004) - Age range: All ages. Assessment and scoring procedures for use with any vocabulary list; great for progress monitoring.
Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS - 1993) - Age range: All ages. Editable form available: t.ly/hE-R (google sheets, print in portrait mode); also great for progress monitoring.
Language Samples (ASHA) - Age range: All ages. Language samples can document the use of many forms of spoken or signed language in content areas. Collect written, spoken, or signed samples. A video recorder may be necessary.
How to Assess Vocabulary - Reference article; no specific tools, just strategies.
Children's Home Inventory for Listening Difficulties (CHILD) (2000) - Age range: 3-12 years. Determines the need for an FM system.
Early Listening Function (ELF) (2000) - Age range: Very young children. Functional use of hearing in very young children.
The Functional Listening Evaluation (1993) - Age range: School age. Demonstrates to students and teachers/parents the need for FM devices.
Infant-Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (IT-MAIS) (1997) - Age range. Birth to 3. Structured interview with parents to assess benefit from amplification.
Knowledge is Power (KIP) (2008) - Age range: School age. Helps students learn about their hearing loss.
Listening Inventory for Education (LIFE) (1996) - Age range: 6+ years. Pre- and post-testing when considering changes in amplification.
Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale - Revised (MAIS) (1995) - Age range: 1a. Under 5, 1b. 5+ years. Auditory behavior information using unstructured probes.
Screening Instrument for Targeting Educational Risk (SIFTER) (2004) - Age range: 6+ years. Identifies need for educational assessment or program change.
Screening Instrument for Targeting Educational Risk - Seconary Age (Secondary SIFTER) (2004) - Age range: Middle & high school. Identifies need for educational assessment or program change.
SKI-HI Curriculum (2004) - Age range: Infants & young children. Family centred programming that includes hearing loss, hearing aids, and cochlear implants; available in Spanish.
Speech Perception, Instruction Curriculum and Evaluation (SPICE) & SPICE for Life 2 (CID) - Age range: Ages 2-12 (SPICE); advanced auditory skills - SPICE for Life 2.
Ansell-Casey Life Skills Assessment (2002) - Age range: 8-18. Measures youth independent living skills.
Ansir's 3 Sides of You: Self-Perception Profiling System (2001) - Age range: no target population. Self-administered online.
Brigance Transition Skills Inventory (2010) - Age range: Secondary special education, vocational education. Evaluates the basic skills and functional life skills in the context of real-world situations.
Campbell Interest and Skill Survey (2000) - Age range: 15 and older. Scales reflect an individual's attraction for specific occupational areas.
Career Exploration Inventory - 5th Edition (2015) - Age range: High school and adult. Interest levels in 15 clusters via 120 questions.
Hands and Voices - Age range: all ages. Resource documents.
The Career Key - Age range: Young people and adults. Identifies jobs and provides information about salaries, job outlook, and job training requirements. Free; online.
Transition Competence Battery for Deaf Adolescents and Young Adults (1993) - Age range: High school age deaf or hard of hearing adolescents. Measures the transition skills of non-college bound deaf adolescents.
Transition Planning Inventory Third Edition - Complete Kit (2020) - Age range: 14-21. Identifying and planning for the comprehensive transition needs.
COP System: Comprehensive Career Guide (2018) - Age range: Jr. high, high school, and adults. Coordinated measures of interests, abilities, and work values.
Life-Centered Career Education (LCCE) Competency Assessment Knowledge Batteries (1992) - Age range: 7th through 12th grades. Standardized criterion-referenced instrument.
PA Individual Student Transition Form (2008) - Age range: transition-age students. PA Department of Education.
PA Transition Assessment Finder (2020) - Age range: middle through high school. This database can be used to find a host of assessments that might be beneficial for an IEP team.
PA Transition Mapping Plan (2020) - middle through high school. Use this chart to develop and track a transition plan.
ASL Assessment Toolkit: ASL Receptive Skills (ASL-RST) (2014) - Age range: 4-13. Measures emerging receptive knowledge of ASL, especially for children in the younger age ranges.
ASL Development Observation Record (CSD Fremont) - Age range: Preschool through K. This tool was developed to document the ASL language development of deaf childgren from the time they enter the program through kindergarten.
American Sign Language Proficiency Assessment (ASL-PA) - Age range: 6-12 years. Assesses expressive ASL skills. Items/target features are based on ASL acquisition studies. Language samples are elicited from varied discourse contexts. There are no sample norms presently available; contact Dr. Sam Supalla at the University of Arizona Department of Special Education for more information (email is linked here).
Carolina Picture Vocabulary Test (CPVT) (1985) - Age range: 4-11.6 years.
Checklist of Emerging ASL Skills (2002) - Age range: K-12. This checklist provides a series of indicators to judge whether a deaf child has components of ASL in their communication system. The checklist is completed by at least three different evaluators who are familiar with the child and who are proficient in ASL.
MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory for ASL (ASL-CDI) (2002) - Age range: 8-36 months.
Signed Reading Fluency for Deaf Children (ASL Rubric) (2007) - Age range: 4+ years.
Test of American Sign Language (TASL) (1994) - Age range: 8-15 years. Consists of two production measures (Classifier Production Test and Sign Narrative) and four comprehension measures (Story Comprehension, Classifier Comprehension Test, Time Marker Test, and Map Marker Test). Contact Dr. Philip Prinz at San Francisco State University Department of Special Education and Communicative Disorders (email is linked here).
Assessment Toolkit from Visual Language/Visual Learning (VL2) - page features a variety of free and paid assessments focused on ASL skills.
Visual Communication and Sign Language Checklist (2013) - Age range: Birth to 5 years. Can be used up to age 8 for diagnostic purposes.
The Student Language and Communication Profile Summary (2010) - Age range: skills in specific age ranges, up to age 7. Gather data on a student's proficiency level in the use of American Sign Language and/or English; includes age expectations for comparison.