How sensorimotor interaction shapes and supports young children’s gestural communication around science

Abstract

Research has demonstrated that gesture produced during conversation can provide insights into scientific thinking and can aid scientific communication in adults and school-aged children. However, to date, there has been a limited exploration into the role of gesture in supporting young children’s science communication, and how this is underpinned and shaped by their sensorimotor experiences. This study examines, identifies and conceptualises ways in which children spontaneously used gesture during their interaction-orientated discourse and how this mapped to their action experiences at a water table. Findings show how gestural communication in children under 5 years of age can convey different levels of complexity related to science thinking.

The role of embodied scaffolding in revealing “enactive potentialities” in intergenerational science exploration

“…Enabling children to express themselves multimodally opens new doors into how we, as adults, understand children's conceptualizations about the natural world and the scientific phenomena as they develop their understanding through sensorimotor interaction in different situations. Our findings thus contribute to existing research into children's gesturing about science and their narrative practices (e.g., Callinan, 2014;Thomas Jha et al, 2021;Price et al, in press), and through our examples speak to the social and intergenerational interaction as supporting sensorimotor knowledge development from an enactive perspective. This evidence points to how children can have what Noë calls "an experience.…”

“…It is not often that we are encouraged, socially, to attend to the details of our gestural communication. We are not regularly asked to reflect upon, or ask deepening questions about, what a gesture meant exactly, or if someone could “show that again.” Gestures can, however, as this study (and others) have demonstrated (e.g., Goldin‐Meadow, 2015; Thomas Jha et al, 2021), reveal much detail about different individuals’ experience. Although families attend to their children's communication, and young children are known to rely much on bodily forms of communication, the benefits of carving space for noticing and attending to gestural communication are not well recognized.…”

“…We are not regularly asked to reflect upon, or ask deepening questions about, what a gesture meant exactly, or if someone could "show that again." Gestures can, however, as this study (and others) have demonstrated (e.g., Goldin-Meadow, 2015;Thomas Jha et al, 2021), reveal much detail about different individuals' experience.…”

“…Intergenerational studies around science meaning making have typically focused on conversation (e.g., Jane & Robbins, 2007; Zimmermann et al, 2015). More recently, research is placing emphasis in the more embodied qualities of experiencing artefacts in museums (e.g., Chatterjee & Hannan, 2015; Thomas Jha et al, 2021; Price et al, 2022) and incorporating physicality in family learning about the natural world has been shown to shape intergenerational meaning making (Marin & Bang, 2018). Bodily actions can present as “concrete representations that serve as entry points for abstract ideas” (Shaffer, 2015, p. 113).…”

“…Empirical evidence in young children's meaning making about science has demonstrated how specific social and sensorimotor interaction processes may foster “sensorimotor contingencies” (Thomas Jha et al, 2021, p. 42; see also Gallagher & Lindgren, 2015; Gallagher, 2020; Hostetter & Alibali, 2008; O'Regan & Noë, 2001) that children can draw upon later when expressing their ideas (e.g., Callinan, 2014). This demonstrates a link between activity in the designed environment and the specific sensorimotor patterns that underpin conceptualizations of science topics embedded in that environment (Thomas Jha et al, 2021). “Cognition is best understood as enactive, as a form of situated practice rather than disembodied mentalizing” (Lübbert et al, 2021, p. 2).…”