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This chapter provides specific recommendations and advice regarding the conduct of competency evaluations with deaf persons who present with language deprivation. It presents specific recommendations and related advice regarding the conduct of competency evaluations with deaf persons who manifest language deprivation. Given the frequent co-occurrence of language deprivation and mental disorder among deaf people in forensic settings, it often is unclear whether their dysfluency has arisen from mental disorder and/or insufficient exposure to sign language. Sign language training in such circumstances is usually focused on specific vocabulary and concepts relevant to competency, not on a broader approach to improving one's sign language fluency. The measures and procedures described are those the author tend to use most often when evaluating cognitive and language functions with deaf adults. The requisite ability to confer effectively with one's attorney(s) requires a number of intact cognitive functions, including attention, concentration, language, short and long-term memory, and adequate intelligence and critical reasoning skills.
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