User:Lisa withane/sandbox

American Sign Language --Acquisition ---Classifiers This would fit under the American Sign Language page if there was a list of how deaf children acquire different aspects of ASL. As it stands, having an acquisition section and just talking about classifiers doesn’t seem appropriate.

There is some debate when talking about the age of acquisition of classifiers in American Sign Language. Some researchers argue that there is evidence of children using classifiers as early as 1-3 years of age. Others argue that deaf children do not master the classifier system until years later. The researchers that argue that acquisition of classifiers comes earlier often admit that not all classifier constructions are acquired at such early ages, with some constructions not being mastered until 5-12 years of age. The researchers that argue for later acquisition of classifiers wait until this point of mastery. Thus, we get two differing positions on the acquisition of classifiers.

Separate from this debate, some researchers instead just propose criteria necessary for determining mastery of classifiers. These criteria include: learning the structure and constraints for each type of classifier handshape, which classifier handshapes can be used to represent various entities, how to represent multiple objects, how to incorporate movement with the classifier handshapes, and how to represent different scales and viewpoints. More research needs to be done to determine if these factors are acquired in stages, and if so, the ordering of the stages.