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Related Experiment Videos

Characterizing changes in parent labelling and gesturing and their relation to early communicative development.

Laura L Namy1, Susan A Nolan

  • 1Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. lnamy@emory.edu

Journal of Child Language
|January 22, 2005
PubMed
Summary

Parental verbal labelling frequency influences child vocabulary growth. Gestural labelling supports early language development, particularly at 18 months, but its overall use declines by 24 months.

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Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Child Language Acquisition
  • Parent-Child Interaction

Background:

  • Parental input, encompassing both verbal and gestural communication, is crucial for early childhood language development.
  • Understanding the distinct and combined roles of verbal and gestural labelling in this process is essential for optimizing early learning environments.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how parental verbal and gestural labelling changes over time during early childhood.
  • To examine the relationship between these changes in parental input and children's vocabulary development.
  • To explore the potential bootstrapping function of parental gestures in language acquisition.

Main Methods:

  • A longitudinal study observing 17 parent-child dyads during free-play at 12, 18, and 24 months of age.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Coding of parental verbal and gestural labelling frequency at each observation point.
  • Administration of child vocabulary checklists at each visit to track vocabulary growth.

    • Main Results:

    • Parental verbal labelling remained consistent, while gestural labelling decreased by 24 months.
    • Individual differences in parental labelling trajectories were observed.
    • Increased parental verbal labelling correlated with slower child vocabulary growth; decreased or constant labelling was associated with faster growth.
    • Parental gestures showed limited systematic relation to vocabulary development, except at 18 months where words and gestures were correlated, suggesting a key supportive role.

    Conclusions:

    • Parental verbal and gestural input follow distinct developmental trajectories and can be dissociated.
    • Gestures appear to play a significant bootstrapping role in vocabulary development around 18 months.
    • The frequency and pattern of parental verbal labelling can have differential effects on the rate of child vocabulary acquisition.