Sign Language & Linguistics - Volume 28, Issue 2, 2025

Aspectual verb modifications have hardly been considered in acquisition research of sign languages. I present new findings from German Sign Language (DGS) based on the data from the largest study to date on sign language development of children in DGS. The data consists of narrations by 72 native signing children, aged 4–11 years, elicited with the language-free stimulus video of the German Sign Language Production Test — Narrative Competences (NaKom DGS). The statistical analysis is based on a Generalized Additive Model, estimating nonlinear regression lines, which allow the visual representation of language development. In this study, aspectual verb modifications for continuatives, iteratives, and conatives are analyzed by changes in the movement parameter. Aspectual verb modifications occur in the elicited DGS narratives of children from the age of 4;8. Up to the age of 10;2 years, the data shows strong development with an increasing production frequency in the children’s narratives. The different types of aspectual verb modifications seem to develop divergingly. The results suggest that in DGS, the aspectual verb modifications conatives and iteratives are produced earlier and more frequently.

Children’s use of constructed action (CA) has been linked to language as well as cognitive and social development, but the relationship among these aspects is not yet well understood. This research explores children’s use of CA in their produced narratives and how its use relates to children’s age and Finnish Sign Language (FinSL) skills. Twenty-one children aged 4 to 10 years who had acquired FinSL from early childhood onwards participated in the study. The children’s use of CA was elicited and analysed in still-image story pictures and video-based materials. The association between children’s use of CA and FinSL skills was analysed in terms of comprehension and production of FinSL vocabulary, grammatical structures, and narrative skills assessed with different assessment tools. The results revealed that children’s use of CA was associated with their age and all aspects of FinSL skills. The more the children combined enactment with co-occurring lexicalised elements, the greater proficiency was required in different aspects of language skills. These findings offer a deeper understanding of how CA and FinSL skills are related, thereby supporting previous suggestions on CA’s role in language acquisition.

Despite the heterogeneity of the deaf population, research shows that deaf individuals experience a high incidence of mental health problems, with high reports of depression and anxiety. This emphasizes the importance of ensuring appropriate mental health therapy. Assessment tools presented in written language or translated spontaneously into sign language could result in misdiagnosis or miscommunication due to linguistic and cultural mismatches. It follows that assessment measures that are systematically translated into sign language are an important step forward in assessing and treating deaf people’s mental health. One reliable diagnostic tool, DASS-21, the 21-item Depression Anxiety Stress Scales, is available in multiple written languages, but, with few exceptions, has typically not been available in a sign language. Our study describes the meticulous process of adaptation we have undertaken to translate DASS-21 from written Hebrew into Israeli Sign Language (ISL). We address the many challenges faced when translating from a written to a visual modality, and we propose resolutions to these challenges. In this way, we hope that the tool whose adaptation we describe here will be useful for any effort to translate a psychological assessment tool into any sign language.