Verbal Fluency Performance Among Deaf Readers

1Donna Guardino, B.A., 1Daniel Koo, Ph.D., 2Karen Garrido-Nag, Ph.D., 1Lawrence Pick, Ph.D.
1Department of Psychology, 2Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Gallaudet University

INTRODUCTION

METHODS

RESULTS

Wechsler Abbreviated Intelligence Scale, 2nd edition (WAIS-II) was administered to

garner an estimate of participants intellectual functioning.

In hearing individuals, stronger English vocabulary and mental flexibility contributes

to better verbal fluency performance (Luo, Luk, & Bialystok, 2010).

Groups were split into proficient and developing readers based on American College
Testing (ACT) and Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests, 3rd Edition, Reading
Comprehension Cluster (WRMT-III) scores.

Little is known about the contributions of English-based verbal fluency to reading

skill in native Deaf signers.
There is a large literature on the reading abilities of native Deaf signers. English
reading abilities are highly variable in this population and the average reading ability
falls at a 4th grade level (Freel et al., 2011).
There are no standardized measures of American Sign Language (ASL)-based fluency
measures and little is known about their performance on English-based verbal
fluency measures. Further, there have been no studies examining the relationship
between verbal fluency performance and reading in this population.
The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the verbal fluency performances of
proficient versus developing readers.

PARTICIPANTS
39 Deaf undergraduate students attending a bilingual University.
Female = 33, Male = 15
Ages ranged from 18 to 36
(M = 22.62, SD = 4.09)
Hearing status: Moderate to Profound
Hearing status identified between birth and the age of 2 years (M =
10.69 months, SD = 9.89)
Ethnicity: Caucasian (27), African-American (5),
Hispanic (5), Asian (2)
No Cochlear Implant
Right-handed
Primary and preferred language = ASL

The Delis-Kaplan Executive Functioning System (D-KEFS), Verbal Fluency Test:

Condition 1 Letter Fluency was administered to assess English-based word fluency.

Scores across each letter condition were variable. No significant differences were
obtained when comparing performances between the reading groups.
Not associates were obtained between verbal fluency performances and reading
proficiency,

Mean

Verbal fluency is a predictor of early reading skill and reading achievement in hearing
individuals (Speece, Mills, Ritchey, & Hillman, 2003).

Tests were administered following standard instructions using ASL.

14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

Participants responded using ASL. Answers including single signs and fingerspelled
words were accepted as correct responses following standard scoring procedures.
The total correct number of words was calculated for each letter (F-A-S) and across
the three letters.
WRMT-III was highly correlated with both ACT English (r=0.532, p = 0.001) and ACT
Reading (r=0.526, p = 0.001) scores.

Subtests

Developing

Proficient

T-Test

WRMT-III, PC
Raw Score*
WRMT-III, WC
Raw Score*
ACT Reading Test

22.5 (4.32)
n=21
47.4 (7.36)
n=21
18.1 (3.77)
n=18
14.8 (3.96)
n=18

30.7 (2.85)
n=21
63.6 (6.52)
n=21
24.1 (5.33)
n=18
19.9 (4.78)
n=18

t(40) = -7.218, *

ACT English Test

t(40) = -7.695, *

Developing
Proficient
A
S
D-KEFS, Verbal Fluency: Letter Condition
Total Correct Words Produced

CONCLUSION
Differences in reading proficiencies appear not to reflect performance ability on
verbal fluency measures in native Deaf signers.
Performances on the D-KEFS Verbal Fluency Letter Condition appear to reflect
English-based phonological retrieval ability in all Deaf participants irrespective of
reading ability.
With Deaf individuals, results indicate that there may be other areas of functioning
that is involved and impacts their rates of fluency.

t(34) = -3.935 *
t(34) = -3.488, *

PC = Passage Comprehension; WC = Word Comprehension

Format of Data: Mean (SD)
* = p < 0.001

Future research should compare letter versus semantic conditions on word fluency
tests, as well as examine ASL analogues of these measures. A recent study
included the 5-1-U measure to assess ASL verbal fluency (Witkin, Morere & Geer,
2013).

REFERENCES

Acknowledgements: This research was funded by a Priority Research Fund Grant from the Gallaudet Research Institute.
Special thanks to research assistants Timothy Ainger, Mariah Ransom Amanda Strasser, and James Waller.

Freel, B. L., Clark, M. D., Anderson, M. L., Gilbert, G. L., Musyoka, M. M., & Hauser, P. C. (2011). Deaf individuals bilingual abilities: American Sign Language proficiency,
reading skills, and family characteristics.Psychology,2(01), 18.
Luo, L., Luk, G., & Bialystok, E. (2010). Effect of language proficiency and executive control on verbal fluency performance in bilinguals. Cognition, 114(1), 29-41.
Speece, D. L., Mills, C., Ritchey, K. D., & Hillman, E. (2003). Initial evidence that letter fluency tasks are valid indicators of early reading skill.The Journal of Special
Education,36(4), 223-233.
Witkin, G. A., Morere, D. A., & Geer, L. C. (2013). Establishment of a Phonemic Clustering System for American Sign Language.Sign Language Studies,14(1), 21-38.