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Maternal gestures with 20-month-old infants in two contexts.

Maria O'Neill1, Kim A Bard, Maggie Linnell

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth, UK. maria.l.oneill@gmail.com

Developmental Science
|June 30, 2005
PubMed
Summary

Mothers modify gestures when speaking to infants, similar to how they modify speech ("motherese"). This "gesturese" supports communication, but may also stem from simpler interactions, suggesting a universal pattern in child-directed communication.

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Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Linguistics
  • Communication Studies

Background:

  • Child-directed speech, known as "motherese," exhibits systematic modifications.
  • Emerging research indicates similar modifications in child-directed gestures, termed "gesturese."
  • Two theories explain maternal gestural modifications: facilitative interactional theory (gesturese scaffolds speech) and interactional artefact theory (gestural modification is due to semantic simplicity).

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the characteristics of maternal gestures in English mothers interacting with their 20-month-old infants.
  • To test the facilitative interactional theory versus the interactional artefact theory regarding maternal gestural modifications.
  • To examine the universality of child-directed gesture patterns by comparing findings with previous studies.

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Main Methods:

  • Observation of 12 English mothers and their 20-month-old infants during free play and a counting task.
  • Analysis of maternal communicative behavior, quantifying the proportion of gestures.
  • Categorization of gestures (e.g., deictic) and assessment of their relationship with speech content.

Main Results:

  • Gestures constituted 29% of total maternal communicative behavior.
  • Mothers predominantly used concrete deictic gestures (e.g., pointing) to clarify and emphasize speech.
  • Maternal gesture rate and the informational link between gestures and speech remained consistent across different tasks, supporting the interactional artefact theory.
  • Observed gesture patterns were similar to those reported for American and Italian mothers, suggesting universality.

Conclusions:

  • Maternal gestural modifications in English mothers are consistent across tasks, supporting the interactional artefact theory.
  • Child-directed gestures are not redundant but actively support communicative acts alongside speech.
  • The findings suggest a universal pattern in how mothers use gestures to scaffold infant communication.