Multimodal representational gestures in the transition to multi‐word productions

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the use of representational gestures from a multimodal point of view in the transition from one-word to multi-word constructions. Twenty-one Spanish-speaking children were observed longitudinally at 18, 21, 24, and 30 months of age. We analyzed the production of deictic, symbolic, and conventional gestures and their coordination with different verbal elements. Moreover, we explored the relationship between gestural multimodal and unimodal productions and independent measures of language development. Results showed that gesture production remains stable in the period studied. Whereas deictic gestures are frequent and mostly multimodal from the beginning, conventional gestures are rare and mainly unimodal. Symbolic gestures are initially unimodal, but between 24 and 30 months of age, this pattern reverses, with more multimodal symbolic gestures than unimodal. In addition, the frequency of multimodal representational gestures at specific ages seems to be positively related to independent measures of vocabulary and morphosyntax development. By contrast, the production of unimodal representational gestures appears negatively related to these measures. Our results suggest that multimodal representational gestures could have a facilitating role in the process of learning to combine meanings for communicative goals. | MURILLO and CaSLa 1 | INTRODUCTION Language is a multimodal process that develops in a multimodal context (Perniss, 2018). The coordination of different sensorial resources is present from the very early stages of language development, as a key characteristic of human interaction. The coordination of motor and vocal elements develops from the very early social interactions (Iverson, 2010). The main linguistic milestones (vocalizations produced during the first face-to-face interactions, the emergence of canonical babbling around 8 months, the production of the first words around 12 months, the beginning of the two-word combination by 18 months), are closely related to specific motor and gestural achievements (Iverson, 2010; Iverson & Thelen, 1999). This close relationship between motor and vocal elements develops during the first years of life, until the gesture-speech synchrony seen in adult speakers (Kendon, 1980, 2004; McNeill, 1992, 2005). Since the pioneering works on early infant communication (e.g., Bates et al., 1979), there has been a considerable amount of research focused on the role of gesture and vocal coordination during language development. Deictic gestures, and specifically pointing gestures, have been widely studied as precursors of early lexical development, and research appears to show they play a clear role in language acquisition (see, for example, the meta-analysis conducted by Colonnesi et al., 2010). However, the evidence regarding the role of representational gestures on language development and its coordination with verbal elements in this process is much scarcer (Özçalişkan et al., 2014; Özçalışkan & Goldin-Meadow, 2005, 2011). The aim of this...

A Genealogy of Gestures: On the Nature and Emergence of Forms of Gestural Communication within Shared Routines

“…Some contradictory findings have been reported in their developmental pathway. Although some authors describe a decrease in their frequency when language becomes prominent in the child's communicative repertoire (Iverson et al, 1994), others report relative stability with a remarkable increase around 30 months of age (Murillo & Casla, 2020;Özçaliskan & Goldin-Meadow, 2009). However, children and adults still use this form of communication to complement language or if the situation does not make language possible due to, for example, noise or distance (Acredolo & Goodwyn, 1985, 1988.…”

Mothers’ and fathers’ bimodal communication in dyadic and triadic interaction with their infants

“…Language develops within different multimodal contexts (Murillo & Casla, 2021). Parental verbal and non-verbal communication helps children to understand and learn new words; thus, the bimodal language input (i.e., gesture associated to speech) provides children with a non-verbal support that has a relevant role in their language acquisition (Özçalışkan & Dimitrova, 2013).…”