Young children's acquisition of the location aspect of American Sign Language signs: Parental report findings

The acquisition of the location aspect of American Sign Language signs was examined in 9 young children of deaf parents. In monthly home visits, the parents demonstrated on videotape how their children formed each newly-acquired sign in their lexicons; these videotaped records served as the basis fo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of communication disorders 1996, Vol.29 (1), p.13-35
Main Authors: Bonvillian, John D., Siedlecki, Theodore
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Age Factors
American Sign Language
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Deafness
Deafness - rehabilitation
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Infants
Language
Language Acquisition
Language Development
Learning
Male
Miscellaneous
Nonverbal Communication
Parent Child Relationship
Parents
Parents with Disabilities
Perceptual Motor Learning
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Sign Language
Toddlers
Videotape Recording
Vocabulary
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The acquisition of the location aspect of American Sign Language signs was examined in 9 young children of deaf parents. In monthly home visits, the parents demonstrated on videotape how their children formed each newly-acquired sign in their lexicons; these videotaped records served as the basis for the present analyses. Sign locations, overall, were produced with relatively high accuracy: 83.5% were correct on average across the different signs in the children's early lexicons. Certain sign locations were found to be more easily or readily acquired than others. Highly contrasting locations (forehead, chin, on and in front of the trunk) were acquired first. Among the locations typically acquired later were those that involved complex handshapes, provided a small area for a point of contact, or required the active signing hand to cross the body's midline. The location aspect was interpreted as playing a central role in young children's early sign language acquisition.
ISSN:0021-9924
1873-7994
DOI:10.1016/0021-9924(94)00015-8