The Time is at Hand: Literacy Predicts Changes in Children's Gestures About Time

The metaphorical motion of time can be expressed in gesture along either a sagittal axis-with the future ahead and past behind the speaker, or a lateral axis-with the past to the left and future to the right of the speaker (Casasanto & Jasmin in CL 23(4): 643-674, 2012). Adult English speakers, when gesturing about time, show a preference for lateral gestures with left-to-right directionality, consistent with the directionality of the reading-writing system in English (Casasanto & Jasmin in CL 23(4): 643-674, 2012). In this study, we asked how early children would show a preference for left-to-right lateral gestures and whether literacy skills would predict the production of such gestures. Our findings showed developmental changes in both the orientation and directionality of children's gestures about time. Children increased their production of left-to-right lateral gestures over time, with a shift around ages 7-8. More importantly, literacy predicted children's production of such lateral gestures. Overall, these results suggest that the orientation and directionality of children's metaphorical gestures about time follow a developmental pattern that is largely influenced by changes in literacy.