Instruments for assessing receptive and expressive vocabularies in Brazilian Portuguese and Libras

Abstract

The paper describes standardized instruments that researchers and practitioners can use for assessing receptive vocabulary development and expressive vocabulary development in both Brazilian Portuguese and Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) in both hearing and deaf children from 2 to 14 years of age. It establishes comparisons among such instruments based on their characteristics and indications, and summarizes some data on their validity, reliability and norms. Norms provided herein permit distinguishing among five talker groups (very late talkers, late talkers, on-time talkers, early talkers, very early talkers) at each of five age levels (i.e., from 1 to 5 years of age), as well as five listener groups (very late listeners, late listeners, on-time listeners, early listeners, very early listeners) at each of nine school grade levels (i.e., from Kindergarten to 8th grade). Norms provided herein also permit distinguishing among five sign receiver deaf groups (very late receivers, late receivers, on-time receivers, early receivers, very early receivers) at each of seven school grade levels of deaf education (i.e., from 2nd to 8th grade). Keywords: vocabulary, speech comprehension, speech production, oral language, lexical development, PPVT