Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T23:11:09.492Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Theodore Siedlecki Jr  and
John D. Bonvillian
Theodore Siedlecki Jr
Affiliation:
University of Virginia
John D. Bonvillian*
Affiliation:
University of Virginia
*
John D. Bonvillian, Department of Psychology, Gilmer Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903–2477. email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The acquisition of the handshape aspect of American Sign Language signs was examined longitudinally in nine young children of deaf parents. In monthly home visit sessions, the parents demonstrated on videotape how their children formed the different signs in their lexicons. According to these parental reports, handshapes were produced accurately in 49.8% of the children's different signs. Accuracy of handshape production typically improved with the children's increasing age and vocabulary size. Four basic handshapes (/5, G, B, A/) predominated in the children's early sign productions. Measures of the children's handshape production accuracy, ordinal position of initial production, and frequency of production were used to describe the order in which handshapes were most often acquired. It was also observed that the part of the hand involved in contacting a sign's location often affected the accuracy of the handshapes being produced.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , January 1997 , pp. 17 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Battison, R. (1974). Phonological deletion in American Sign Language. Sign Language Studies, 5, 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonvillian, J. D., & Blackburn, D. W. (1991). Manual communication and autism: Factors relating to sign language acquisition. In Siple, P. & Fischer, S. D. (Eds.), Theoretical issues in sign language research: Vol. 2. Psychology (pp. 255–277). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bonvillian, J. D., Cate, S. N., Weber, W. R., & Folven, R. J. (1988). Early letter recognition, letter naming, and reading skills in a signing and speaking child. Sign Language Studies, 60, 271–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonvillian, J. D., Orlansky, M. D., Novack, L. L., Folven, R. J., & Holley-Wilcox, P. (1985). Language, cognitive, and cherological development: The first steps in sign language acquisition. In Stokoe, W. & Volterra, V. (eds.), SLR ‘83: Proceedings of the III. International Symposium on Sign Language Research (pp. 10–22). Silver Spring, MD: Linstok Press.Google Scholar
Bonvillian, J. D., & Siedlecki, T. Jr. (1996). Young children's acquisition of the location aspect of American Sign Language signs: Parental report findings. Journal of Communication Disorders, 29, 13–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyes-Braem, P. (1973/1990). Acquisition of the handshape in American Sign Language: A preliminary analysis. In Volterra, V. & Erting, C. J. (Eds.), From gesture to language in hearing and deaf children (pp. 107–127). Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Carter, M. (1981). The acquisition of British Sign Language (BSL): A first analysis. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Caselli, M. C. (1983). Communication to language: Deaf children's and hearing children's development compared. Sign Language Studies, 39, 113–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coulter, G. R., & Anderson, S. R. (1993). Introduction. In Coulter, G. R. (Ed.), Phonetics and phonology: Vol. 3. Current issues in ASL phonology (pp. 1–17). San Diego, CA: Academic.Google Scholar
Dale, P. S., Bates, E., Reznick, J. S., & Morisset, C. (1989). The validity of a parent report instrument of child language at twenty months. Journal of Child Language, 16, 239–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daniloff, J., & Vergara, D. (1984). Comparison between the motoric constraints for Amer-Ind and ASL sign formation. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 27, 76–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dennis, R., Reichle, J., Williams, W., & Vogelsberg, R. (1982). Motoric factors influencing the selection of vocabulary for sign production programs. The Journal of the Association of the Severely Handicapped, 7, 20–32.Google Scholar
Ferguson, C. A., & Far well, C. B. (1975). Words and sounds in early language acquisition. Language, 51, 419–439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, C., Menn, L., & Stoel-Gammon, C. (1992). Preface. In Ferguson, C., Menn, L., & Stoel-Gammon, C. (Eds.), Phonological development: Models, research, implications (pp. xi–xiii). Timonium, MD: York Press.Google Scholar
Folven, R. J., & Bonvillian, J. D. (1991). The transition from nonreferential to referential language in children acquiring American Sign Language. Developmental Psychology, 27, 806–816.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gesell, A. (1940). The first five years of life. London: Harper.Google Scholar
Gibson, E. J. (1969). Principles of perceptual learning and development. New York: Appleton Century-Crofts.Google Scholar
Hays, W. L. (1981). Statistics (3rd ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Ingram, D. (1976). Phonological disability in children. New York: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Kantor, R. (1982). Communicative interactions: Mother modification and child acquisition of American Sign Language. Sign Language Studies, 36, 233–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kratochwill, T. R., & Wetzel, R. J. (1977). Observer agreement, credibility, and judgment: Some considerations in presenting observer agreement data. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 10, 133–139.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liddell, S. K., & Johnson, R. E. (1989). American Sign Language: The phonological base. Sign Language Studies, 64, 195–277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maestas y Moores, J., (1980). Early linguistic environment: Interactions of deaf parents with their infants. Sign Language Studies, 26, 1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marentette, P. F. (1995, April). Acquisition of American Sign Language phonology: A case study of a hearing child of deaf parents. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Indianapolis, IN.Google Scholar
McIntire, M. L. (1977). The acquisition of American Sign Language hand configurations. Sign Language Studies, 16, 247–266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meier, R. P. (1991). Language acquisition by deaf children. American Scientist, 79, 60–70.Google Scholar
Menn, L. (1989). Phonological development: Learning sounds and sound patterns. In Gleason, J. B. (Ed.), The development of language (2nd ed., pp. 59–100). Columbus, OH: Merrill.Google Scholar
Nelson, K. (1973). Structure and strategy in learning to talk. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 38 (1–2, Serial No. 149).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newport, E., & Meier, R. (1985). The acquisition of American Sign Language. In Slobin, D. I. (Ed.), The crosslinguistic study of language acquisition: Vol. I. The data (pp. 881–938). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Novack, L. L., Folven, R. J., Orlansky, M. D., Bonvillian, J. D., & Holley-Wilcox, P. (1988). Language, cognitive, and cherological development in young children of deaf parents. In Magarotto, C. (Ed.), Proceedings of the IXth Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf (pp. 559–571). Rome: Ente Nazionale Sordomuti.Google Scholar
Poizner, H., & Lane, H. (1978). Discrimination of location in American Sign Language. In Siple, P. (Ed.), Understanding language through sign language research (pp. 271–287). New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Prinz, P. M., & Prinz, E. A. (1979). Simultaneous acquisition of ASL and spoken English (in a hearing child of a deaf mother and hearing father): Phase I: Early lexical development. Sign Language Studies, 25, 283–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prinz, P. M., & Prinz, E. A. (1981). Acquisition of ASL and spoken English by a hearing child of a deaf mother and hearing father: Phase II: Early combinatorial patterns. Sign Language Studies, 30, 78–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sears, R. R., Rau, L. L., & Alpert, R. (1965). Identification and child rearing. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Siedlecki, T. Jr., (1992). The acquisition of American Sign Language phonology by young children of deaf parents (Doctoral dissertation, University of Virginia, 1991). Dissertation Abstracts International, 53, 1085B.Google Scholar
Siedlecki, T. Jr., & Bonvillian, J. D. (1993). Location, handshape, and movement: Young children's acquisition of the formational aspects of American Sign Language. Sign Language Studies, 78, 31–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siedlecki, T. Jr., & Bonvillian, J. D. (in press). Homonymy in the lexicons of young children acquiring American Sign Language. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research.Google Scholar
Stokoe, W. C. Jr. (1960). Sign language structure: An outline of the visual communication systems of the American deaf (Studies in Linguistics, Occasional Papers 8). Buffalo, NY: University of Buffalo.Google Scholar
Stokoe, W. C. Jr., Casterline, D., & Croneberg, C. (1965). A dictionary of American Sign Language on linguistic principles. Washington, DC: Gallaudet College.Google Scholar
von Tetzchner, S. (1984). First signs acquired by a Norwegian deaf child of deaf parents. Sign Language Studies, 44, 225–257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waterson, N. (1971). Child phonology: A prosodic view. Journal of Linguistics, 7, 179–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilbur, R. B. (1987). American Sign Language: Linguistic and applied dimensions (2nd ed.). Boston: College-Hill.Google Scholar
Wilbur, R. B. (1990). Why syllables? What the notion means for ASL research. In Fischer, S. D. & Siple, P. (Eds.), Theoretical issues in sign language research: Vol. I. Linguistics (pp. 81–108). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Woodward, J. (1982). Single finger extension: For a theory of naturalness in sign language phonology. Sign Language Studies, 37, 289–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, J. (1985). Universal constraints on two-finger extension across sign languages. Sign Language Studies. 46, 53–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, J. (1987). Universal constraints across sign languages: Single finger contact handshapes. Sign Language Studies, 57, 375–385CrossRefGoogle Scholar