Ros Herman

Senior lecturer - deafness and hearing impairment

Biography

Ros Herman qualified as a Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) at Reading University, achieved her Masters at the University of London and completed her PhD at City University, London. She has worked clinically with Deaf clients of all ages and works part-time at City University, lecturing on the BSc and PGDip courses for trainee SLTs and the MSc Human Communication course. Ros has a longstanding interest in the clinical skills of SLTs who work with Deaf people, and for many years ran the Advanced Clinical Studies Diploma at City University for qualified SLTs wishing to specialise in deafness.

Ros's research interests are focused on language development in British Sign Language (BSL) and communication and reading in deaf people. Ros has worked actively to highlight the lack of assessment materials for Deaf children who are BSL users. She was project leader in the development of two major language assessments in BSL (Herman et al 1999, Herman et al 2004), representing the only available norm-referenced tests of any sign language in the world, and she played an active role in developing the DfES National Monitoring Protocol for Deaf Infants & Children (2004). She was recently involved in a project in association with staff at DCAL (the Deafness, Cognition & Language Research Centre)  to develop BSL norms for the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory and is currently working with the same group on a project to characterise language impairment in BSL. Ros has just embarked on a new project to investigate reading and dyslexia in oral deaf children.

Ros has developed a Sign Language Assessment outreach service based at the Department of Language & Communication Science's on-site clinic, the Compass Centre, which offers clinical assessments of Deaf children and adults' communication in BSL. Ros also lectures and offers workshops to Teachers of the Deaf, Communication Support Workers and SLT Special Interest Groups on language acquisition in BSL and assessment of BSL and regularly runs training courses in use of the BSL Production Test (Herman et al 2004) for professionals working with Deaf children.

Recent Publications

• Alton, S., Herman, R. & Pring, T. (in press). Developing communication skills in deaf primary school pupils: introducing and evaluating the smiLE approach. Child Language Teaching & Therapy.
• Herman R. & Mann W. (2010). Sign language assessment: Where are we now? British Association of Teachers of the Deaf, (January) 22-23.
• Mason, K., Rowley, K., Marshall, C. R., Atkinson, J. R., Herman, R., Woll, B. & Morgan, G. (2010). Identifying SLI in Deaf children acquiring British Sign Language: Implications for theory and practice. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 28, 33-49.
• Woolfe, T., Herman, R., Roy, P. & Woll, B. (2009) Early vocabulary development in deaf native signers: a British Sign Language adaptation of the communicative development inventories. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 51, 322 - 331.
• Morgan, G., Herman, R., Barriere, I. & Woll, B. (2008). The onset and mastery of spatial language in children acquiring British Sign Language. Cognitive Development, 23, 1-19. 
• Morgan, G., Herman, R., & Woll, B. (2007). Language impairments in Sign Language: Breakthroughs and Puzzles. International Journal for Language and Communication Disorders, 42, 97-105.
• Martin, K., Hirson, A., Herman, R., Thomas, J. & Pring, T. (2007). The efficacy of speech intervention using electropalatography with an 18 year old deaf client: A single case study. Advances in Speech-Language Pathology, 9, 46-56.
• Koutsoubou, M., Herman, R. & Woll, B. (2007). Does language input matter in bilingual writing? Translation versus direct composition in Deaf school students' written stories. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 10. 127-151.
• Koutsoubou, M., Herman, R. & Woll, B. (2006). Bilingual Language Profiles of Deaf Students: An Exploration of Three Deaf Writers with Different Language Proficiencies. Deafness & Education International, 8, 144-68.
• Herman, R. (2006). Measuring deaf children's achievments in BSL. Sign Matters, October.
• Herman, R. & Roy, P. (2006). Evidence from the extended use of the BSL Receptive Skills Test. Deafness and Education International, 8, 33-47.
• Grove, N., Herman, R., Morgan, G. & Woll, B. (2004). Baby signing: the view from the sceptics.  Bulletin of the Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists, November, 12-13.
• Herman, R. (2004). Early Support Programme: Monitoring Protocol for Deaf Babies and Children, DfES publication.
• Herman, R., Grove, N., Holmes, S., Morgan, G., Sutherland, H. & Woll, B. (2004). Assessing BSL Development: Production Test (Narrative Skills).City University Publication (contact Bethan Lewis for information).
• Pantelemidou, V., Herman, R. & Thomas, J. (2003). Efficacy of speech intervention using electropalatography with a cochlear implant user. Journal of Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 17, 383-392.
• Morgan, G., Herman R. & Woll, B. (2002). The development of complex verb morphology in BSL. Journal of Child Language, 29, 655-675.
• Morgan G, Herman, R. & Woll, B. (2000). The development of complex verb morphology in BSL. Proceedings of the VIIIth International Congress for the Study of Child Language, San Sebastian, July 1999.
• Woll, B., Herman, R. & Holmes, S. (2000), L'evaluation du developpement de la langue des signes.  ISBN 2-9514262-3-1. ACFOS III, Paris.
• Herman, R. (1999). Assessing deaf children's BSL development: more questions than answers?  British Association of Teachers of the Deaf Magazine (May), 34-5.
• Herman, R., Holmes, S. & Woll, B. (1999). Assessing British Sign Language Development: Receptive Skills Test.  Forest Bookshop.  Gloucestershire, UK.