Co-Speech Gestures contribution to Language Proficiency

Gestures are commonly used in conversational settings when trying to explain or put inflection on a point. The use of gestures can often contribute to the way we interpret information regardless of how a person verbally said it. Co-speech gestures have been proven to enhance a listeners understanding of a message.  This article details and examines how language proficiency impacts the benefits of co-speech gesture for narrative understanding. The difference in how kids use gesture and how adults look at gesture have been explored thoroughly over the years. Children have benefited more from gestures than adults. Because language proficiency in children is not fully developed children seem to use gestures more. 

To effectively examine whether language proficiency is needed they tested bilingual children because they often develop language at an uneven pace which serves as a great opportunity for the researchers to gain valuable insight into the importance of language proficiency. The researchers hypothesized that, "Children will pay greater visual attention to co-speech gestures in their weaker language, as attention to gesture may be used as a compensatory mechanism for understanding speech". 

The researchers determined that more research was still needed to actively determine a correct result. But it was determined that language proficiency definitely contributes to the utility of gesture for communication.