There are countless different ways of learning and many may disregard the importance of motor learning like gesture, but experiments have been done on this topic, specifically focusing on a child's learning. It has been found that gesture has a great benefit for a child’s learning inside and outside the classroom. Both neurotypical and non-neurotypical children can show benefits in the use of gesture-based learning.
In the article, "Learning math by hand: The neural effects of gesture-based instruction in 8-year old children" by Elizabeth M. Wakefield et al., Wakefield and colleagues examined the neurological connection on how children solve mathematical problems by a speech and gesture approach or a speech only approach. The mechanisms used by these researchers were that gesture supports learning by directing visual attention, and gesture supports learning by engaging the motor system. The researchers used an eye movement tracker to observe the attention of children when they were presented with gesture and no gesture during a teaching lesson. It was shown that children presented with gestures had more visual attention to the problem they were presented, compared to children who had no gestures given during their lesson. Speech only lectures had children’s eye movement all over the place, which means that the children’s visual attention was not focusing on the lecture. The researchers also used fMRI and were able to show the regions of the brain that were activated when children were presented different stimuli. It was found that gesture supports learning by engaging the motor system. This study shows that gesture provided more visual attention compared to no gesture, and visual attention is key to proper learning.
The role of gesture in children’s learning was also examined in the article “Parents’ Translations of Child Gesture Facilitate Word Learning in Children with Autism, Down Syndrome and Typical Development” by Nevene Dimitrove et al,. The researchers examined the relation between children with developmental disorders like Autism and Down Syndrome and how gesture plays a role in their learning development. Children are known to connect objects with gestures, and they learn the translation of that said object from teachers and parents. Unlike neurotypical children, children with autism and down syndrome tend to show a delay in their development specifically in language and vocabulary. The research completed by Nevene Dimitrove and colleagues showed that when parents of children with these neurological disorders translated the gestures the child performed; the child would then learn the vocabulary associated to that gesture more easily. If the parent does not translate the gesture, it is less likely that the child will be able to recall or learn the spoken vocabulary to that object. The language development of the children in this research study is greatly affected by their parents’ translations and responses to the gestures of the child. This shows that gesture is significant in the language development with children that have autism and down syndrome.
These two research articles show the importance of gestures in all children, whether they are neurotypical or have some sort of neurological disorder. Children greatly benefit from the use of gesture when learning because it helps with their visual attention as well as correlating an object to vocabulary. Although the research done by Elizabeth M. Wakefield et al, focuses more on the use of gestures and visual attention when teaching a neurotypical child in a classroom setting, children with neurological disorders would likely benefit from gestured focused lessons in the classroom as well. The research done by Nevene Dimitrove et al, shows that when a child uses gestures themselves and have their parents use translation for the gesture, it is very beneficial for their learning. Although this article focuses mainly on children with autism and down syndrome, it would be assumed that neurotypical children would also benefit from the use of translated gesture.
Citations:
Wakefield E, Novack MA, Congdon EL, Franconeri S, Goldin-Meadow S. Gesture helps learners learn, but not merely by guiding their visual attention. Dev Sci. 2018 Nov;21(6):e12664. doi: 10.1111/desc.12664. Epub 2018 Apr 16. PMID: 29663574; PMCID: PMC6191377.
Dimitrova, N., Özçalışkan, Ş. & Adamson, L.B. Parents’ Translations of Child Gesture Facilitate Word Learning in Children with Autism, Down Syndrome and Typical Development. J Autism Dev Disord 46, 221–231 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2566-7
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