Gesture Development in Infancy: Effects of Gender but not Bilingualism

Abstract

School-age bilinguals have been reported to gesture more than monolinguals (Nicoladis et al., 2009). However, research has not yet investigated whether such differences can be observed in infancy. In a pre-registered study, we measured parent-reported gesture use in three groups of 14–month–olds (N = 152) learning French and/or English: bilingual, exposed, and monolingual. The three language groups produced a similar number of gesture types; however, girls produced more gesture types than boys. Overall, results suggest that gender, but not language exposure, contributes to differences in gesture development in infancy.