The Written Language of Deaf Adolescents: Patterns of Performance

A study was conducted of the written language skills of a representative sample of 69 adolescents with severe and profound hearing losses, using both a standardized language sample (TOWL-2) and a letter. The overall results confirmed the generally low levels of performance typically found in this population and the existence of a developmental plateau. Nevertheless, performance levels were not uniformly low. The sample scored relatively high on measures of orthographic conventions and on semantics, but considerably lower on use of grammar. While females scored higher than males, and students in Auditory/Oral (A/O) programs scored higher than those in Total Communication (TC) programs, the profile of scores did not vary by group. In general, the letter elicited higher levels of performance than the standardized sample, although the latter elicited more grammatically complex writing. Factor analysis indicated that the various measures derived from the two samples were associated more strongly by genre than by levels of language form.