From Gesture to Language in Hearing and Deaf Children

CHAPTER 17 Early Sign Language Acquisition: Implications for Theories of Language Acquisition

CHAPTER 17 Early Sign Language Acquisition: Implications for Theories of Language Acquisition J.D. BONVILLIAN, M.D. ORLANsKY,and R.J. FOLVEN Introduction Duringthe past25 years.ourunderstandingofhow childrenacquire language has been considerably expanded by the results of a large number of empirical investigations. Although our knowledge ofthe language acquisition process has improved. there is as yet no widespread agreement regarding the important questions of when language is first used by children. and what abilities or characteristics should rightly be considered prerequisites or precursors to language. Inasmuch as symbolic and communicative components have been widely viewed as fundamental to language. many investigators have presumed that their presence is a prerequisite to language. Consequently. it was often assumed. until recently. that language emerged only after certain symbolic and communicative prerequisites have been "mastered." This focus on prerequisites has tended to obscure the concept oflanguage as a skill intimately intertwined with the child's general cognitive. perceptual. gestural. and social development. Moreover. questions regarding the nature of language acquisition have not been restricted to theoretical debates; they have influenced the education and treatment of children as well. Language Precursors Theorists typically have taken one ofseveral positions in seeking to explain the development oflanguage. One perspective (Piaget. 1962; Sinclair. 1971)has held that the child's acquisition of cognitive or sensorimotor abilities is a necessary precursor to language. Language. in this model. is viewed essentially as an outgrowth ofthe child's acquisition ofthis symbolic function, with the ability to use symbols a consequence ofthe completion ofthe sensorimotor period. In the This research was supported in part by National Science Foundation Grant BNS-8023I14. Portions ofthis research were presented at the Third International Symposium on Sign Language Research. Rome. June. 1983. and at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development. Toronto. April. 1985. The authors wish to express their deep gratitude to the families who so generously participated in the study. 220 J.D. Bonvillian et al. development of the symbolic function, Piaget placed special importance on the child's capacity for mental representation, an ability clearly demonstrated by the understanding ofthe permanence ofobjects. Many studies conducted within this theoretical framework have compared a child's spoken language development with his or her performance on sensorimotor tasks. In addition, a strong correspondence between young children's symbolic play and their spoken language development has been reported (Casby & Ruder, 1983; Nicolich, 1975, 1977). Another approach which emphasized the importance ofcognitive precursors to language was formulated by Werner and Kaplan (l963). They pointed out that the child's transition from an egocentric conceptualization of self and environment to the realization that objects are entities distinct from the self is a critical development during the sensorimotor period. This process of differentiating or distancing of the self from the referent is considered an early precursor of referential behavior and subsequent language development. A second major series of models oflanguage acquisition has focused on the interaction between the child and his or her mother(orother principalcaregiver). From this perspective, language is primarily constructed socially: over the course ofa great many daily interactions, mother and child gradually establish a number of conventionalized routines that enable them to control and understand each other's behavior in an increasingly complex environment. Beginning in early infancy, a mother often reacts to her child's grasping and reaching movements by attributing intentions to them and otherwise interpreting them from her perspective . In many cases, interpretation is supplemented with action, as the mother assists her child in achieving the apparent goal ofthese movements or actions. As Bruner (1975a) has noted, the child's participation in these early prelinguistic exchanges and turn-taking routines provides a foundation of experience in nonverbal signaling. The visual cross-checking that occurs between mother and infant is also considered important; language is thus viewed as having precursors in the pragmatic aspects of social interaction. The third major approach to studying the roots oflanguage has centered on the child's early gestural communication. Researchers have focused either on the structural and communicative aspects ofthe child's nonverbal gestures, or on the co-occurrence of gestures with vocalic utterances in order to determine the meaning of early vocalizations. The various gestures produced by the normal child and theircommunicative impact have been examined in particulardepth by Bates and her associates (Bates, Benigni, Bretherton, Camaioni, & Volterra, 1977, 1979). Bates has contended that minimal gestural communication precedes language and placed the onset ofsuch gestural facility late in the child's 1st year. In...