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Related Concept Videos

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Children master language quickly and with relative ease, supported by both biological predisposition and reinforcement. B. F. Skinner (1957) proposed that language is learned through reinforcement, while Noam Chomsky (1965) argued that language acquisition mechanisms are biologically determined.
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Language, whether spoken, signed, or written, consists of specific components: lexicon and grammar. The lexicon is the vocabulary of a language, comprising its words. Grammar is the set of rules used to convey meaning through the lexicon. For example, English grammar adds “-ed” to most verbs to indicate past tense. Words are formed by combining phonemes, which are the basic sound units of a language. Different languages have different sets of phonemes (e.g., “ah” vs.
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Show, give, and point gestures across infancy differentially predict language development.

Boin Choi1, Ran Wei2, Meredith L Rowe2

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Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Linguistics
  • Child Development

Background:

  • Deictic gestures, particularly pointing, are crucial for language acquisition in children.
  • Emerging research indicates that 'show' and 'give' gestures precede pointing and correlate with later pointing development.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the developmental trajectory of 'show', 'give', and 'point' gestures in infants from 10 to 16 months.
  • To determine if specific gestures predict language skills at 18 months at different infant ages.
  • To analyze parental responses to various infant gesture types.

Main Methods:

  • Longitudinal study of 47 infants from 10 to 16 months.
  • Videotaped parent-child interactions coded for child gestures and parent responses.
  • 18-month language skills assessed using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning and the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory.

Main Results:

  • At 10 months, 'show+give' gestures were stronger predictors of 18-month language skills than pointing.
  • At 14 months, pointing gestures became a better predictor of 18-month language skills compared to 'show+give'.
  • By 16 months, infant speech, not gestures, was the most significant predictor of 18-month language skills. Parents responded more to 'show+give' gestures than to pointing at 10 months.

Conclusions:

  • Different deictic gestures offer insights into language development at distinct stages of infancy.
  • The predictive power of gestures on language skills evolves throughout the first year of life.
  • Parental responsiveness to gestures varies by gesture type and infant age.