Lexical iconicity--signs or words that resemble their meaning--is overrepresented in children's early vocabularies. Embodied theories of language acquisition predict that symbols are more learnable when they are grounded in a child's firsthand experiences. As such, pantomimic iconic signs, which use the signer's body to represent a body, might be…

It is unclear how children develop the ability to learn words incidentally (i.e., without direct instruction or numerous exposures). This investigation examined the early achievement of this skill by longitudinally tracking the expressive vocabulary and incidental word-learning capacities of a hearing child of Deaf adults who was natively learning…

This research focused on the initial stage of language development of a hearing child who was acquiring simultaneously both spoken English and American Sign Language (ASL). The report covers the first phase of the longitudinal research on the child's linguistic development, focusing on early word meanings. The data were collected from the time…

Studies the simultaneous language development in American Sign Language and spoken English by a hearing girl. Findings show: (1) a mixture of oral and manual babbling, (2) a code-switching ability across modalities, and (3) a single syntactic system incorporating rules from both languages but with two separate lexicons. (Author/PJM)

Reports on an experiment describing the lexical development of a hearing child with a deaf mother and hearing father. Data confirm previous findings that (1) sign emerges before spoken word, (2) acquisition stages are similar in ASL and spoken English, and (3) the child initially develops one lexical system. (Author/AM)

Examined longitudinally the handshape aspect of American Sign Language signs in young children of deaf parents. Parents demonstrated on videotape how the children formed the different signs. Findings reveal that four basic handshapes predominated in early sign production, and that the part of the hand involved in contacting a sign's location often…

Some 76 hearing children in prekindergarten classes, half receiving sign instruction and half not, were tested on English vocabulary acquisition. Children who received the sign instruction scored significantly higher on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test than children receiving sign instruction. (Contains 15 references.) (Author/LB)

Presented is a collection of 14 conference papers on various aspects of child language acquisition. Papers and authors include: "Language and Psychological Development" (Jean Berko Gleason); "Regression in the Phonological Development of Two Children" (Ken M. Bleile, J. Bruce Tomblin); "Children's Acquisition of the…