ScienceDaily published an article based on a study at Georgia State University. Pinar, et. al further investigated the relationship between gesturing and speech development in twins (Georgia State University, 2021). It was found that twins gesture and develop language at a lesser rate than non-twin children. This can be explained by parental focus on more than one child at a time. Although gesturing of twin and non-twin parents appeared the same in variety and usage, it was found that there are more interruptions between gestures due to the presence of more than one child in twins, which affects learning overall. Findings also suggest that there is a correlation between gesturing and the rate of speech development. For example, parents that exhibit more gestures when talking with their children cause them to have an easier time developing the language. Another interesting finding in the experiment is the predictability of speech development from gesture. Children who gesture more and exhibit a weak sense of language are still developmentally on track. The article states that an abundance of gesturing can predict language development occurring even if it is not verbally assured. The article based on research from Georgia State University states, “a lag in gesture may mean a lag in the next linguistic milestone” (Georgia State University, 2021). After reviewing the source, itself, Pinar’s journal article states that there is a significant difference between male and female children and their language development; girls show a higher speech proficiency than boys of the same age by six months (Pinar et. al, 2021). Although this was a minor finding in the article, it is still interesting to further investigate gesturing in male children in the future and its difference between that of female children. It would also be interesting to question if there is a difference in speech development between fraternal and identical twins with a gender difference. If gesturing in the parent is the same, what can we conclude about language development differences between these two groups?
The previous research article relates to Elizabeth M. Wakefield’s study co-speech gesturing and visual attention (Wakefield & Zielinski). Experimenters studied both gesturing and its effect on learning mathematical problems in children along with its effect on bilingual children watching a video in their non-native language. Findings suggest that gesturing aids in better understanding and solving mathematical equations and better remembering storylines in newfound languages than their native language. This could be explained by a stronger focus on gesture when concepts or phrases are harder to understand; in addition, gesturing could elicit a stronger focus in children.
Overall Pinar’s research dives deeper into the presence of gesturing and language proficiency in twins and the importance of gesturing in parenting between twins where gestures can be interrupted or incongruent with one twin’s conversation, but congruent with another. This is important for parents with twins to understand as it will help their children socially and academically by understanding language. With this, it would be interesting to further analyze parents of children that speak more than one language and how they promoted their linguistic development throughout. In addition to parents, teachers may also take note of these findings to further explain new concepts in classes and teach new languages themselves. Could gesturing in teachers affect academic performance? In addition, it would be interesting to research is there a connection between academic performance in larger classes than smaller classes based on the same principle of diverted attention seen in the twin study.
Georgia State University. (2021, May 10). For twins, gesture and speech go hand-in-hand in language development. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 12, 2023 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/05/210510161431.htm
Pınar, Ozturk, S., Ketrez, F. N., & Özçalışkan, Ş. (2021). Parental Speech and Gesture Input to Girls Versus Boys in Singletons and Twins. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 45(2), 297–318. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-020-00356-w
Wakefield, E. M., & Zielinski, N. (2021). Language Proficiency Impacts the Benefits of Co-Speech Gestures for Narrative Understanding Through a Visual Attention Mechanism. Chicago, IL, USA.
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