Supporting Children’s Language, Learning & Literacy

Welcome to Northern Signs Research

The mission of Northern Signs Research Inc. is to support the development of creative teaching and assessment materials to promote children’s language, learning and literacy in American Sign Language and English.

girl learning american sign language

Our Programs

The American Sign Language Assessment Tools

ASL Receptive Skills Test

  • Developed for children aged 3 to 13 years
  • Measures children’s understanding of ASL grammar
  • Assesses 8 grammatical structures (number/distribution, negation, noun/verb distinction, spatial verbs, size/shape specifiers, handling classifiers, role shift, and conditionals)

ASL Expressive Skills Test

  • Developed for children aged 4 to 13 years
  • Measures children’s ability to sign a story in ASL (expressive language)
  • Assesses narrative (story) structure and ASL grammatical features (spatial verbs, agreement verbs, manner, aspect, role shift)
  • Testers must be certified to use the test (complete a training workshop)

Please see the video below for more details and examples of the tests
(presented in ASL and English)

Next Training Workshop

September 27 & 28, 2024

Online ASL EST Training Workshop