Stuttering-Like Behaviors in ASL: Clinical Position Paper on Assessment Considerations and Recommendations

Assessment of stuttering like behaviors in signed language among deaf individuals will be discussed in this paper. Several assessments have been developed over the years that evaluate deaf children’s American Sign Language (ASL) proficiency, which is a very important undertaking for this population. However, there has been very little discussion in the literature regarding the specific diagnostic tools used to evaluate deaf children’s signed language disorders and dysfluency, such as specific signed language impairment (SSLI) and signed stuttering (Cripps et al., 2016a & b). Although some American deaf children have been ‘informally’ diagnosed with SSLI (e.g., Quinto-Pozos et al., 2011, 2013, 2014) and signed stuttering (Cripps et al., 2018), a complete diagnostic battery has yet to be developed for each type of signed language disorder and/or dysfluency. As part of generating more attention to signed language pathology, this paper will explore adapting existing spoken speech-language assessments to diagnose dysfluency for ASL users and to inform and encourage signed language professionals to assess its viability, specifically to use the Stuttering Severity Instrument-4 (Riley, 2009) for deaf children who sign. Information and considerations from this clinical position paper are intended to inform and encourage signed language professionals to assess application of this diagnostic tool for signed language users and to explore other assessment possibilities (e.g., Gillam et al., 2009) to be adapted and researched for this underserved population in the future. This position paper is a call to expand and improve upon our signed language assessments for deaf children who are ASL users, specifically for those who stutter and who currently have minimal therapeutic identification or assistance.