Journal ArticleDOI
Impact of symbolic gesturing on early language development
TLDR
This paper evaluated the effect on verbal language development of encouraging hearing infants to use simple gestures as symbols for objects, requests, and conditions, and found strong evidence that symbolic gesturing does not hamper verbal development and may even facilitate it.Abstract:
The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effect on verbal language development of purposefully encouraging hearing infants to use simple gestures as symbols for objects, requests, and conditions. To this end, 103, 11- month-old infants were divided into three groups, all of whom were seen in the laboratory for a variety of assessments, including standardized language tests at 15, 19, 24, 30, and 36 months. Parents of those in the Sign Training group modeled symbolic gestures and encouraged their infants to use them. Parents of infants in the Non-intervention Control group knew nothing about symbolic gestures or our spe- cial interest in language development. As a control for "training effects" (i.e., effects attributable to families being engaged in a language intervention program), parents of a second control group of infants (the Verbal Training group) were asked to make special efforts to model verbal labels. After comparisons of the two control groups minimized concerns about training effects, comparisons between the Sign Training and the Non-intervention Control group indicated an advantage for the Sign Train- ing group on the vast majority of language acquisition measures. These results pro- vide strong evidence that symbolic gesturing does not hamper verbal development and may even facilitate it. A variety of possible explanations for such an effect are discussed.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
From mouth to hand: gesture, speech, and the evolution of right-handedness.
TL;DR: It is argued that language evolved from manual gestures, gradually incorporating vocal elements, and may be traced through changes in the function of Broca's area, the code for both the production of manual reaching movements and the perception of the same movements performed by others.
Journal ArticleDOI
Becoming symbol-minded
TL;DR: To participate fully in any society, children have to master the symbol systems that are important in that society, so it is even more important to understand the processes involved in symbolic development.
Journal ArticleDOI
Gesture development: a review for clinical and research practices.
Nina C. Capone,Karla K. McGregor +1 more
TL;DR: Clinicians and researchers are provided with a comprehensive overview of the development and functions of gesture in childhood and in select populations with developmental language impairments and needs for additional research on gesture are highlighted.
Journal ArticleDOI
Prelinguistic predictors of language outcome at 3 years of age.
TL;DR: The findings demonstrate continuity between prelinguistic and linguistic skills and how individual differences in a number of prelingsuistic skills contribute collectively and uniquely to language outcome in typically developing children.
Journal ArticleDOI
Learning to talk in a gesture-rich world: Early communication in Italian vs. American children
TL;DR: This paper found differences in the size of the gesture repertoires produced by the Italian vs. the American children, differences that were inversely related to the children's spoken vocabularies.
References
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Book
Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes
TL;DR: In this paper, Cole and Scribner discuss the role of play in children's development and play as a tool and symbol in the development of perception and attention in a prehistory of written language.
Journal ArticleDOI
The role of tutoring in problem solving
TL;DR: The main aim of this paper is to examine some of the major implications of this interactive, instructional relationship between the developing child and his elders for the study of skill acquisition and problem solving.
Journal ArticleDOI
Early vocabulary growth: Relation to language input and gender.
TL;DR: This article examined the role of exposure to speech in children's early vocabulary growth and found a substantial relation between individual differences in vocabulary acquisition and variations in the amount that particular mothers speak to their children.
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