Using Gestures to Aid In Speech Development

The use of hand gesturing in schools and scientific studies has proven to improve learning in speakers as well as signers. It is proven that when in conversation, there is a higher chance of remembering the conversation compared to if no hand gestures were used. The main goal for using these hand gestures in schools is in order to aid in the development and learning of children. These hand gestures can develop skills not just in language but also in cognitive skills that we use in our day to day life. Research has thus proven these aspects of the use of gesturing with children to boost their speaking and or learning.

In Elizabeth Wakefield’s writing on the use of gesturing to promote learning, she discusses how using gestures on their own while teaching a class help improve the children’s scores compared to using any sort of gesturing. She used eye tracking movements which measured where the child’s attention was throughout the entire math lesson. The student watching the lessons with a teacher using hand gestures aimed their attention toward the problem being explained with the instructor's gestures as an aid. They proved in this study that using gestures is not just beneficial to aid in visual attention but also to synchronize with speech. 

I found this article to be super interesting due to the fact that as a kid when my parents would try and show me something they slowed their speech and pointed at the item. This helped me understand and connect the motion to the auditory speech coming from my parents' mouths. We don't realize it but on a day to day basis we all use gestures whether it be waving hello or goodbye, to pointing out something to guide the attention of another individual. This study made me realize that gestures do help when trying to understand a certain topics when words just do not do the job entirely.

In a recent article I found by “News Medical & Life Sciences”,  they discuss how both gesture and speech go hand in hand when it comes to early language development. They reported that in twins, they typically produce fewer gestures at a young age compared to other children. The interesting part of the article is how they discovered that a lag in gesture almost always developed a lag in speech. This article connects to Wakefield’s article in the sense that both articles have a main focus on how the use of gestures aids in developing cognitive skills as well as speech. 

URL: https://www.news-medical.net/news/20210510/Gesture-and-speech-go-hand-in-hand-in-early-language-development-in-twins-shows-studies.aspx