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Related Experiment Videos

Symbolic gesturing in normal infants.

L Acredolo1, S Goodwyn

  • 1Psychology Department, University of California, Davis 95616.

Child Development
|April 1, 1988
PubMed
Summary

Infants spontaneously develop symbolic gestures, mirroring early words and indicating shared cognitive processes. This nonverbal communication is crucial for language development and offers insights for speech pathology interventions.

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Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Linguistics
  • Child Development

Background:

  • Normal infants spontaneously develop nonverbal gestures to represent objects and concepts.
  • These symbolic gestures function similarly to early verbal symbols, suggesting shared underlying mechanisms.
  • The recognition that objects have names is a key factor in both gestural and verbal symbol development.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To document the spontaneous development of symbolic nonverbal gestures in infants.
  • To investigate the relationship between symbolic gestures and early verbal development.
  • To explore implications for theories of language acquisition and speech pathology.

Main Methods:

  • Study 1: Interviewed mothers of 38 17-month-old infants about their children's verbal and nonverbal development.
  • Study 2: Longitudinal study tracking 16 infants from 11 to 24 months for precise documentation.
  • Both studies analyzed the emergence, characteristics, and correlates of symbolic gestures.

Main Results:

  • Symbolic gestures develop concurrently with early words.
  • Girls tend to use symbolic gestures more than boys.
  • Parent-child interaction quality influences gesture development.
  • Gestures often represent object function over form.
  • Gesture use correlates positively with verbal vocabulary size.

Conclusions:

  • Symbolic gestures are a typical aspect of early development, not rare.
  • Gestures and words stem from common cognitive foundations related to symbolic representation.
  • Findings inform theories of language development and have implications for speech pathology, particularly in understanding early communication.

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