Using speech and gesture to introduce new objects to young children

Clark, Eve V.; Estigarribia, Bruno

doi:10.1075/gest.11.1.01cla

Cited by 98 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Iconic gestures have been shown to support word learning for a range of word types in both first- (Goodrich & Kam, 2009;McGregor, Rohlfing, Bean, & Marschner, 2009) and second-language acquisition (Tellier, 2007(Tellier, , 2008. Clark and Estigarribia (2011) found that when adults teach 3-year-olds new words, adults use gestures (as well as object manipulation) to indicate parts of a novel object and to describe actions and functions. McGregor et al (2009) taught 2-year-old children the preposition term under through the modeling of objects, either with or without iconic gestures.…”

Section: Gestures and Word Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children Use Gesture to Interpret Novel Verb Meanings

Mumford

Kita

2013

Child Development

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Children often find it difficult to map verbs to specific referents within complex scenes, often believing that additional features are part of the referents. This study investigated whether 3-year-olds could use iconic gestures to map novel verbs to specific referents. One hundred and twenty children were taught verbs that could be interpreted as change-of-state or manner verbs while presented with manner, end-state, or no iconic gestures. Children were then presented with a choice that forced them to generalize either on the basis of manner or end state. Results showed that children who saw manner gestures showed a stronger manner bias compared to the other groups. Thus, the specific feature of an event encoded in gestures guides children's interpretations of novel words.

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Section: Gestures and Word Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children Use Gesture to Interpret Novel Verb Meanings

Mumford

Kita

2013

Child Development

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“…point at cup þ 'cup') does not reliably predict the onset of two-word sentence-like utterances [17], reinforcing the point that it is the specific way in which gesture is combined with speech, rather than the ability to combine gesture with speech per se, which signals the onset of future linguistic achievements. The gesture in a complementary gesture þ speech combination has traditionally been considered redundant with the speech it accompanies but, gesture typically locates the object being labelled and, in this sense, has a different function from speech [36]. Complementary gesture þ speech combinations have, in fact, recently been found to predict the onset of a linguistic milestone-but they predict the onset of complex nominal constituents rather than the onset of sentential constructions.…”

Section: (Iii) Complex Nominal Constituentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Widening the lens: what the manual modality reveals about language, learning and cognition

Goldin‐Meadow

2014

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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The goal of this paper is to widen the lens on language to include the manual modality. We look first at hearing children who are acquiring language from a spoken language model and find that even before they use speech to communicate, they use gesture. Moreover, those gestures precede, and predict, the acquisition of structures in speech. We look next at deaf children whose hearing losses prevent them from using the oral modality, and whose hearing parents have not presented them with a language model in the manual modality. These children fall back on the manual modality to communicate and use gestures, which take on many of the forms and functions of natural language. These homemade gesture systems constitute the first step in the emergence of manual sign systems that are shared within deaf communities and are full-fledged languages. We end by widening the lens on sign language to include gesture and find that signers not only gesture, but they also use gesture in learning contexts just as speakers do. These findings suggest that what is key in gesture's ability to predict learning is its ability to add a second representational format to communication, rather than a second modality. Gesture can thus be language, assuming linguistic forms and functions, when other vehicles are not available; but when speech or sign is possible, gesture works along with language, providing an additional representational format that can promote learning.

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“…The gesture in a complementary gesture+speech combinational has traditionally been considered redundant with the speech it accompanies but, as Clark and Estigarribia (2011) point out, gesture typically locates the object being labeled and, in this sense, has a different function from speech. Complementary gesture+speech combinations have, in fact, recently been found to point forward—but to the onset of nominal constituents rather than to the onset of sentential constructions.…”

Section: Gesture Not Only Precedes But Also Predicts the Onset Of LImentioning

confidence: 99%

Gesture as a Window onto Communicative Abilities: Implications for Diagnosis and Intervention

Goldin‐Meadow

2015

Perspect Lang Learn Educ

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Speakers around the globe gesture when they talk, and young children are no exception. In fact, children's first foray into communication tends to be through their hands rather than their mouths. There is now good evidence that children typically express ideas in gesture before they express the same ideas in speech. Moreover, the age at which these ideas are expressed in gesture predicts the age at which the same ideas are first expressed in speech. Gesture thus not only precedes, but also predicts, the onset of linguistic milestones. These facts set the stage for using gesture in two ways in children who are at risk for language delay. First, gesture can be used to identify individuals who are not producing gesture in a timely fashion, and can thus serve as a diagnostic tool for pinpointing subsequent difficulties with spoken language. Second, gesture can facilitate learning, including word learning, and can thus serve as a tool for intervention, one that can be implemented even before a delay in spoken language is detected.

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Using speech and gesture to introduce new objects to young children

Cited by 98 publications

References 61 publications

Children Use Gesture to Interpret Novel Verb Meanings

Children Use Gesture to Interpret Novel Verb Meanings

Widening the lens: what the manual modality reveals about language, learning and cognition

Gesture as a Window onto Communicative Abilities: Implications for Diagnosis and Intervention

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