The effects of gesture on learning, especially with adolescents, has been widely explored and acknowledged as an effective addition to communication. It has been proven that concurrent, related speech and gesture patterns allow an individual to interpret meaning through multiple sensory channels. Throughout child development, parent-child communication is heavily dependent on the use of physical gestures. Parents translate gestures from non-verbal children into language cues, which ultimately allows the child to interpret gestures as words, aiding in child language development.
Children who adopt verbal language at a relatively older age, also known as late-talkers, adopt pointing and representational gestures similar to children with typical language development timelines. However, a study done by the University of Bologna observing the correlation between late-talkers and gesture use shows that delayed word-gesture associations are a significant source of delayed word comprehension. In early child development, word-gesture correlation assists children’s transition to word-word correlation. Therefore, word-gesture correlation is vital to early language maturation.
In the University of Bologna study titled “Integrating Gestures and Words to Communicate in Full-Term and Low-Risk Preterm Late Talkers,” it was found that late-talkers whose parents utilized physical gestures presented stronger language learning abilities. Additionally, researchers found a negative correlation between increased parental age and their child’s use of gesture in language, which is likely due to aging and decreased use of gesture in learning. Parents play a substantial role as an environmental factor in language development, and parents' use of communicating gestures and words simultaneously aid in overall language development.
Dr. Elizabeth Wakefield’s article “Language Proficiency Impacts the Benefits of Co-Speech Gesture for Narrative Understanding Through a Visual Attention Mechanism” discusses the way gesture shapes visual attention. In her research, Dr. Wakefield studies bilingual language development in children, focusing on the influence of gesture in learning relative to the strength of a child’s language abilities. This work shows that children experience a greater benefit from gesture-word association in their newer and often weaker language compared to their native language. This is likely a result of children’s reliance on gestures when they are apprehensive on word definitions. Dr. Wakefield’s research implemented eye-tracking machinery to understand where children are paying attention during simultaneous word and gesture communication. This work showed that language learners pay more attention to physical gestures when the spoken language is difficult to comprehend. As shown in the study by the University of Bologna, word-gesture association is vital for the transition to word-word association. Dr. Wakefield's work expands on this theory, showing how word-gesture association leads to word-word association, which can therefore reinforce secondary language word-gesture interconnections.
Gesture use within language development is a valuable reinforcement to aid children’s transition into word-word association. The research discussed above shows that gesture learning is vital to both timely native language development and subsequent language learning. Current research works to understand the implication of gesture on various populations, however this body of work lacks interest in gesture assisted language learning in individuals with intellectual disabilities. As researchers continue to develop methods of testing gesture and word comprehension, it is important to consider how understanding language and gesture interpretation in children with intellectual disabilities may aid over all special needs education. The work on gesture learning has made immense growth and highlighted the importance of utilizing multiple sensory information systems in learning. Neurological research now has a strong foundation to build from and hopefully continues to grow by influencing education for all individuals.
References:
Suttora C, Guarini A, Zuccarini M, Aceti A, Corvaglia L, Sansavini A. Integrating Gestures and Words to Communicate in Full-Term and Low-Risk Preterm Late Talkers. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Mar 25. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19073918.
Zielinski, N., & Wakefield, E. M. (2021). Language Proficiency Impacts the Benefits of Co-Speech Gesture for Narrative Understanding Through a Visual Attention Mechanism. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 43. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/63r5d3qq
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