Action Imitation at 1½ Years Is Better Than Pointing Gesture in Predicting Late Development of Language Production at 3 Years of Age

Zambrana, Imac Maria; Ystrøm, Eivind; Schjølberg, Synnve; Pons, Francisco

doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01872.x

Cited by 21 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 57 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Gaze following measured at the end of the first year predicts both vocabulary size and rate of growth in vocabulary over the first two years of life (Brooks & Meltzoff, ; Tenenbaum, Sobel, Sheinkopf, Malle, & Morgan, ). The ability to imitate the goals of actions in the second year of life predicts language production skills at 3 years (Charman et al, ) and can even predict whether an infant exhibits later language delays (Zambrana, Ystrom, Schjølberg, & Pons, ). Engaging in joint attention, which involves sharing attention with a partner to a third entity, such as when an infant is attending simultaneously to both a parent and a toy (Seibert, Hogan, & Mundy, ; Tomasello & Farrar, ), involves much of the behaviors used to measure infants’ action understanding listed above and has been implicated as a manifestation of infants’ intention understanding (Salo, Rowe, & Reeb‐Sutherland, ).…”

Section: Action Understanding and Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of the motor system in action understanding and communication: Evidence from human infants and non‐human primates

Salo

Ferrari

2018

Developmental Psychobiology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There is growing evidence that activation of the motor system during observation of actions, a phenomenon first observed in non‐human primates, underlies action understanding and even communication. This review (a) examines the evidence on motor system activity as an underlying neural correlate of action understanding; (b) reviews the theoretical and empirical work linking action understanding and the development of communication, with a specific focus on the role that gestures play as an intermediary; and (c) discusses the research on and existing opportunities for understanding the link between the motor system and communication in both humans and non‐human primates, through the lens of action perception. Bringing together findings and perspectives from developmental social cognition in both humans and non‐human primates and applying recent neuroscientific perspectives will help to elucidate the processes underlying the ability to understand and communicate with others.

show abstract

Section: Action Understanding and Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of the motor system in action understanding and communication: Evidence from human infants and non‐human primates

Salo

Ferrari

2018

Developmental Psychobiology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This symptom is so relevant that imitation delays are considered valid predictors of this disorder (Miniscalco et al, 2014;Vanvuchelen et al, 2011), and a severity score linked to this very symptomatology, introduced by Gotham et al (2009) as assessed through the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (Hus et al, 2014;Rogers et al, 2003), has been found to be significantly related to imitation deficits (Gallese et al, 2004) in social response to cues. The capability of imitating others is thought to be critical for the development of social skills and language (Ingersoll, 2012;Rizzolatti and Arbib, 1999;Suddendorf et al, 2013;Tettamanti et al, 2005;Tomasello et al, 1993;Zambrana et al, 2013), which are noticeably impaired in ASD. Given that imitation has a special role also in motor development (Filippi et al, 2016;Maratos, 2017;Mari et al, 2003), soft motor signs and developmental (Information about the authors can be found at the end of this article.)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soundbeam imitation intervention: Training children with autism to imitate meaningless body gestures through music

Forti

Colombo

Clark

et al. 2020

AIA

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose This paper aims to present the application and critical reflection on the effects of a intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD): the Soundbeam Imitation Intervention (SII). The intervention is based on the imitation of meaningless body gestures supported by a musical feedback. The rationale underlying SII is that mirror neurons deficit may represent the cause for the incomplete development of social and motor functioning in children with ASD. Following this assumption, it is possible to hypothesise that a systematic activation of this a system through the simultaneous observation-execution of meaningless body gestures may affect functional changes of mirror-related functions. Design/methodology/approach A sample of 14 children, who were between 5 and 9 years of age, with a diagnosis of ASD were involved in a six weeks’ SII programme. The programme is designed as a three-step progression, where each step includes exercises that focus on an activity: synchronous/one arm imitation, synchronous/two arms imitation and delayed imitation. Exercises are based on repeated movements-melodies associations of increasing difficulty. Motor imitation and social attention were assessed using a synchronous video-modelling task pre and post intervention. Findings Data highlight significant improvements in imitation accuracy and duration of social sustained attention were achieved. Originality/value Data reported in this paper provide preliminary and promising evidence that imitation and social attention skills acquired through SII can be generalised to a video-modelling imitation setting. The SII ordinal execution has included meaningless gestures, usually excluded from previous interventions, and this adds further validity to the training.

show abstract

“…The development of gestures is the foremost example of this. Motor skills influence the performance of gestures and studies have shown that children with language delays very often have a history of problems with gestures (Iverson and Goldin-Meadow 2005;Zambrana et al 2012a). Further, theories of motor cognition, i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The developmental relationship between language and motor performance from 3 to 5 years of age: a prospective longitudinal population study

Wang

Lekhal²,

Aarø

et al. 2014

BMC Psychol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Previous research has found that language and motor skills are closely interrelated developmental areas. This observation has led to questions about the specificity of these domains, and the nature of the associations. In this study, we investigated the longitudinal relationship between language and gross and fine motor performance from 3 to 5 years of age. Methods: We tested the prediction across and within developmental domains using cross-lagged panel models. In addition, estimates of specificity for each domain were calculated. Analyses were performed using parental reports in a sample of 11 999 children from a prospective population study. Results: Structural equation modelling revealed unique positive predictions from early language performance to later fine and gross motor skills. Neither gross nor fine early motor skills uniquely predicted later language performance. Both language and motor skills were stable from 3 to 5 years of age. Motor skills were more stable in boys than in girls. Boys had lower scores than girls on fine motor performance, but gender differences in cross-lagged associations between language and motor performance were non-significant. The variance specific to language performance decreased from 68% to 46% in relation to fine motor skills and from 61% to 46% in relation to gross motor skills from 3 to 5 years of age. Conclusion: From 3 to 5 years of age the stability within each developmental area is high, and unique prediction from one domain to the other is weak. These results implicate stable and correlated developmental pathways at this age.

show abstract

Action Imitation at 1½ Years Is Better Than Pointing Gesture in Predicting Late Development of Language Production at 3 Years of Age

Cited by 21 publications

References 57 publications

The role of the motor system in action understanding and communication: Evidence from human infants and non‐human primates

The role of the motor system in action understanding and communication: Evidence from human infants and non‐human primates

Soundbeam imitation intervention: Training children with autism to imitate meaningless body gestures through music

The developmental relationship between language and motor performance from 3 to 5 years of age: a prospective longitudinal population study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About