Language Proficiency Levels for Units
P-Level Information
The units developed and taught through this project typically describe the ability levels of the students each
unit was designed for. Teaching goals and activities are very dependent upon deaf and hard-of-hearing
(DHH) students’ performance level. This is to be helpful to other teachers in planning for modifications to
meet the needs of one’s own students.
One of the descriptors used in these units is “P-Levels”. Native language proficiency is often delayed and
remains a challenging area for most DHH students. Most state standards assume that all children arrive at
school with fully-developed and fluent language skills. Therefore, standards do not address the frequent
language fluency needs of DHH students, in either English or ASL..
Many language assessment instruments are quite complex. Listings of competencies across syntactic,
semantic, and pragmatic categories are often extremely lengthy and detailed (see Easterbrooks & Baker,
2002; Schirmer, 2000). This project has chosen to use a compilation of language development information,
in a “teacher-friendly” instrument developed specifically for DHH students, regardless of communication
method or modality. This instrument summarizes information across syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic
development into a series of checklists, and was developed through work at the Gallaudet University’s (now
renamed) Clerc Center (French, 1999).
These language development checklists are presented below, starting with P-level (Proficiency level) 2; this
is the point at which children are using 1-word/1-sign communication. The lists being with P-O+ and
continue through the last level, P-7 at which point children are demonstrating full language competency.
The checklists are based on categories with criterial questions for each category, and for each Proficiency,
or P-Level:
Reference—the type and variety of things and ideas the child communicates about
Content—the semantic categories
Cohesion—how effectively the child links (pragmatically and syntactically) with topics & others
Use—the pragmatic functions the child attempts
Form—the syntactic characteristics of the child’s communication
When using these checklists, it is important for teachers to know the key syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic
skills of language development. The teacher needs to make decisions regarding the presence or absence
of each of these skills for each particular child. The P-Level checklists recommend that teachers talk with
parents and with other professionals who work with the child in order to be sure to represent the full range
of skills that may be used in other situations and circumstances.
References
Easterbrooks, S. R., & Baker, S. K. (2002). Language learning in children who are deaf and hard of
hearing : multiple pathways. Boston, Ma. Allyn & Bacon
French, M. M. (1999). Starting with assessment: A developmental approach to deaf children’s literacy.
Washington, DC: Pre-College National Mission Programs, Gallaudet University.
Schirmer, B. R. (2000). Language and literacy development in children who are deaf (2nd ed.). New York:
Macmillan.
Criteria Questions: Level 2
Kendall Conversational Proficiency Levels (P-Levels)
Criteria
Number
2.1
Criteria Questions
Yes
No
Evidence
Does the child often use conventional signs or words
to refer to the immediate physical context? (amplifies
one-word utterances/ signs with nonverbal means or
reference: holding, touching, pointing, looking: refers to
things in the here and now)
Does the child identify objects upon request?
(content of communication consists of the things and
actions that are a part of the immediate physical context
shared with partner, i.e. is likely to label shared toys,
other objects of interest)
Does the child sometimes repeat what was just said?
(will repeat, without instrumental intent but with apparent
comprehension, segments of preceding utterances of
others)
Date:
Utterance:
2.4 a
Does the child often use the language to request a
few objects and simple services? (“Eat?” “Ball?”)
Date:
Utterance:
2.4.b
Does the child use the language to get the attention
of others or to call them to his location?
Date:
Utterance:
2.4. c
Does the child use the language to greet others?
(“Hi” “Goodbye”)
Date:
Utterance:
2.4. d
Does the child often use the language to protest
other people’s actions he wishes to avert? (“No”,
“Stop!”)
Does the child use the language to label objects?
Date:
Utterance:
2.2
2.3
2.4. e
Date:
Utterance:
Date:
Utterance:
Date:
Utterance:
Date:
Utterance:
2.4.f
Does the child use the language to note the presence
of objects?
2.4.g
Does the child often use the language to note or call
for the disappearance (or removal) of objects?
(signs/says “all gone”, shakes head “no” more)
Date:
Utterance:
2.5
Does the child usually use single word utterances/
signs, facial expressions, gestures, and pointing to
convey meaning (e.g. points to a car, signs/says,
“car”)
Date:
Utterance:
Criteria Questions: Level 3
Kendall Conversational Proficiency Levels (P-Levels)
Criteria
Number
3.1
Criteria Questions
Yes
No
Evidence
Does the child refer primarily to things that are of
interest to her? (reference still tied to the immediate
environment)
Does the child communicate about a substantial
number of objects and actions affecting her? (that is,
too many to keep track of readily)
Does the child communicate about the location of
objects?
Does the child communicate about both temporary
and more or less permanent characteristics of people
and objects?
( e.g., dirty, wet, hot, cold, sad, big, etc.)
Date:
Utterance:
3.3
Does the child link what she says to what others say
in any way? (may comment on same topic at the
preceding adult comment, but this is primarily because
they are sharing the same context or focus of interest; the
comment creates text more through the immediate
environment than through an actual reference back to the
adult’s text)
Date:
Utterance:
3.4a
Does the child use language to repeat a broad range
of her actions?
Does the child use language to affirm the presence of
a substantial number of objects, note (or call for)
their absence, disappearance, or removal, and note
(or try to bring about) their return? ( e.g, uses
language to comment on such things as when she hides
an object, someone leaves, she finishes eating
something, she uses something, she uses up some
material; often asks for a return of or more of these
things)
Does the child use language to request a broad range
of objects and services? (asks for foods, toys, clothing,
help getting dressed, turning on the television, and going
on an excursion, etc.)
Does the child use language to identify objects and
actions in pictures?
Does the child usually use utterances consisting of
at least two syntactically related components? ( e.g.
“Iron hot”, “More cracker”, “No Bug”, “Doggie Come,”
etc.”)
Does the child provide enough information for others
to figure out what she has left unsaid?
Date:
Utterance:
Date:
Utterance:
3.2a
3.2b
3.2c
3.4b
3.4c
3.4.d
3.5a
3.5 b
Date:
Utterance:
Date:
Utterance:
Date:
Utterance:
Date:
Utterance:
Date:
Utterance:
Date:
Utterance:
Date:
Utterance:
Criteria Questions: Level 4
Kendall Conversational Proficiency Levels (P-Levels)
Criteria
Number
4.1a
4.1b
4.2a
4.2b
4.3
4.4a
4.4b
4.5a
4.5b
Criteria Questions
Yes
No
Evidence
Does the child refer to action he is about to
take, and does he express the intention to take
action? (still refers largely to the present, but is
beginning to refer to the past and the future)
Does the child refer to actions (taken by others)
that do not affect him?
Date:
Utterance:
Does the child use a broad variety of
combinations of semantic categories of
meaning in a single utterance? There is an
ability to code a lot more information in a single
utterance by combining things; (e.g. “Draw a red
bicycle,” “Eric reading my book,” etc.)
Does the child talk about several coordinated
but independent events and states at the same
time? (E.g. “I go the library and get a book and
come back,” “We read book” “ Go night-night”)
Does the child achieve cohesion in
conversation by using elements (words and
phrases) from the prior utterances of his
conversation partners? (e.g. adult: “Do you want
a cookie? Child: “Yes, I want a cookie” Cohesion
usually occurs as the child responds to an adult
initiative.)
Does the chills us the language to establish the
identity of things and people? (asks: who and
what questions)
Does the child create and maintain worlds of
make-believe? (as opposed to simply participating
in make believe worlds created by others; initiates
play; assigns and regulates roles; acts out his own
part)
Does the child usually express most of what he
means to say, and rarely leaves unsaid things
that should be expressed?
Does the child usually understand friends and
familiar adults, and do they understand him?
Date:
Utterance:
Date:
Utterance:
Date:
Utterance:
Date:
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Utterance:
Criteria Questions: Level 5
Kendall Conversational Proficiency Levels (P-Levels)
Criteria
Number
5.1
Criteria Questions
Yes
No
Evidence
Does the child communicate confidently and
intelligibly on topics that go entirely beyond the
immediate physical context and that require her to
inter-relate objects, states, and events locate outside
present time and space? (communicates very
comfortably about past and future events and can locate
events temporally, with respect to other events
Does the child express explicitly a variety of
relationships between events (or states):
relationships involving time, causality, contradiction,
states of knowledge? (expresses the notion that one
event is related to a second but some reason or purpose
using “and, “so”, “then”, “because”, or the ASL equivalent;
that one event occurs in spite of the occurrence of
another event using “but” or some equivalent; that one
event is related to another with respect to time using “so,”
before,: “when”, “until”, etc. or equivalents. E.g. “Recess
canceled because it’s raining outside.” If it’s not raining,
then we can go outside.” “We can’t go outside, but we
can have recess inside.” “We have lunch before recess.”
“We have lunch until time to go outside.”)
Does the child carry on a conversation contributing
details or comments relevant to her partner’s theme
without changing the subject? (initiates comments that
are responsive to the preceding topic; asks questions to
elicit information about events, purposes, states, and
intentions)
Does the child use language to find out what is
happening?
Does the child use the language to fine out who is
taking action?
Does the child use the language to find out what
state things are in?
Date:
Utterance:
5.4d
Does the child use the language to find out why
people are doing what they are doing?
Date:
Utterance:
5.5a
Does the child usually tell stories or provide
descriptions with clear overall meaning and
structure? (hazy details are readily clarified by
questioning the child.)
Does the child communicate with ready intelligibility
on a one-to-one basis with strangers accustomed to
deaf children?
Date:
Utterance:
5.2
5.3
5.4a
5.4b
5.4c
5.5b
Date:
Utterance:
Date:
Utterance:
Date:
Utterance:
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Utterance:
Date:
Utterance:
Date:
Utterance:
Criteria Questions: Level 6
Kendall Conversational Proficiency Levels (P-Levels)
Criteria
Number
6.1a
Criteria Questions
Yes
No
Evidence
Does the child refer to objects, actions, events, and
states in a hypothetical mode (i.e. without regard to
their reality or truth) and consider the implications?
(e.g. “If you were as young as I, …”)
Does the child refer expressly to non-routine and
complex actions and feelings of a more or less
perceptible sort? (provides enough content)
Date:
Utterance:
6.2
Does the child communicate successfully on any
topic within his experience? (or within his intellectual
reach)
Date:
Utterance:
6.3a
Does the child engage in sustained dialogue and
narrative with strangers with a high degree of
intelligibility and comprehension? (in one-on-one
conversation)
Does the child follow with accuracy (but not
necessarily full detail) the general meaning of multicornered conversations even though they do not bear
closely on familiar topics? (multi-cornered
conversations are those that involve more than two
people)
Does the child use the language explicitly to influence
opinions and attitudes as well as actions?
(successfully argues his point; uses language to pose
personal and academic problems)
Does the child maintain a steady flow of accurate and
fully intelligible expression only occasionally having
to circle around it or use non-idiomatic language?
Date:
Utterance:
Does the child provide sufficient contextual
background to enable conversational partners to
interpret messages that contain a considerable
amount of new information?
Does the child communicate with sufficient clarity so
that only occasional clarifying questioning by his
conversational partner is required?
Date:
Utterance:
6.1b
6.3b
6.4
6.5a
6.5b
6.5c
Date:
Utterance:
Date:
Utterance:
Date:
Utterance:
Date:
Utterance:
Date:
Utterance:
Criteria Questions: Level 7
Kendall Conversational Proficiency Levels (P-Levels)
Criteria
Number
7.1
Criteria Questions
Yes
No
Evidence
Does the child build referential contexts that are
sufficiently rich to allow her to explain the details of
moderately elaborate systems, such as the rules of a
game or how something works, to others who are
unfamiliar with what is being explained? (descriptions
must be more abstract than concrete-above the level of
what can be observed or sensed; e.g. can explain the
complex rules of such games as baseball, bridge, chess;
rules of language; operations of mechanisms such as the
speeds of a 10 speed bicycle or a manual can opener, the
overall structure, roles, responsibilities, and procedures of
an institutional organization)
Does the child communicate with strangers in one-to
one situations and multi-cornered conversational with
high degree of intelligibility? (i.e. communications oneon-one and in groups with full comprehension of general
meaning and details)
Date:
Utterance:
7.3a
Does the child paraphrase or amplify her own
comments to accommodate the needs of her
conversational partner?
Date:
Utterance:
7.3b
Does the child pinpoint the information she needs to
clarify and ambiguous message? (can explain exactly
the problem of a confusing message and what additional
or corrected information is needed for clarification)
Date:
Utterance:
7.4
Does the child use the language to express general
principles for the purpose if influencing opinions,
attitudes, and actions of others? (can formulate
arguments that appeal to principles or general
considerations; uses verbs that go beyond describing
actions or states)
Does the child usually maintain a steady flow of fully
idiomatic expression that is free of circumlocution?
Date:
Utterance:
7.2
7.5
Date:
Utterance:
Date:
Utterance: