Parents modify gesture according to task demands and child language needs

Wray, Charlotte; Norbury, Courtenay

doi:10.1177/0142723718761729

Cited by 7 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…In another line of studies, the beneficial effect on word learning of iconic gestures in the input is documented in young TD children (e.g., Capone and McGregor, 2005;McGregor et al, 2009) and in children with DLD (Ellis Weismer and Hesketh, 1993;Lüke and Ritterfeld, 2014;Vogt and Kauschke, 2017). These findings are in line with the observation that mothers of children with LD or DLD intuitively adapt their input to their children by providing more pointing and iconic gestures in interactions than mothers of the same-aged TD children (Grimminger et al, 2010;Lavelli et al, 2015;Wray and Norbury, 2018). Lavelli et al (2015) show again that this higher rate of gestures in maternal input of children with DLD is comparable to the number of gestures produced in maternal input of younger, language-matched TD children.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 63%

“…Similar results were found for language interventions administered by trained parents or by speech-language pathologists (Law et al, 2009;Roberts and Kaiser, 2011): Children with LD and DLD score lower on language and gesture tasks, but they also benefit from the presentation of more and specific language and gesture input. Parents seem to be sensitive to this effect because they do not only intuitively adapt their verbal input toward their child with LD, as it has been found in many studies (for a review see Blackwell et al, 2015), but also their gestural input (Grimminger et al, 2010;Lavelli et al, 2015;Wray and Norbury, 2018). This means that children with LD or DLD can benefit from the presentation of iconic gestures during word learning as well as they benefit from SLT, although their gestural and language abilities are lower compared to TD peers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Iconic gestures represent semantic information in their form or movement (e.g., opening and closing the extended index and middle finger to represent scissors). This research focuses on four different aspects of iconic gestures: (1) Comprehension of the iconicity of iconic gestures (Botting et al, 2010;Wray et al, 2016;Perrault et al, 2019); (2) Production of iconic gestures during specific tasks such as narrative tasks, picture description, or in shared book-reading situations (Iverson and Braddock, 2011;Mainela-Arnold et al, 2014;Lavelli et al, 2015;Lavelli and Majorano, 2016;Wray et al, 2016Wray et al, , 2017; (3) The beneficial effect of iconic gestures for word learning (Ellis Weismer and Hesketh, 1993;Lüke and Ritterfeld, 2014;Vogt and Kauschke, 2017); (4) Adaptation in parental input (Grimminger et al, 2010;Wray and Norbury, 2018). Tolar et al (2008) showed in their cross-sectional study with TD children that the ability to understand the meaning of iconic gestures even in this group is only slightly developed, with just 14% of the 2;6-year-old children performing above chance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Integrated Communication System: Gesture and Language Acquisition in Typically Developing Children and Children With LD and DLD

et al. 2020

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Gesture and language development are strongly connected to each other. Two types of gestures in particular are analyzed regarding their role for language acquisition: pointing and iconic gestures. With the present longitudinal study, the predictive values of index-finger pointing at 12 months and the comprehension of iconic gestures at 3;0 years for later language skills in typically developing (TD) children and in children with a language delay (LD) or developmental language disorder (DLD) are examined. Forty-two monolingual German children and their primary caregivers participated in the study and were followed longitudinally from 1;0 to 6;0 years. Within a total of 14 observation sessions, the gestural and language abilities of the children were measured using standardized as well as ad hoc tests, parent questionnaires and semi-natural interactions between the child and their caregivers. At the age of 2;0 years, 10 of the 42 children were identified as having a LD. The ability to point with the extended index finger at 1;0 year is predictive for language skills at 5;0 and 6;0 years. This predictive effect is mediated by the language skills of the children at 3;0 years. The comprehension of iconic gestures at 3;0 years correlates with index-finger pointing at 1;0 year and also with earlier and later language skills. It mediates the predictive value of index-finger pointing at 1;0 year for grammar skills at 5;0 and 6;0 years. Children with LD develop the ability to understand the iconicity in gestures later than TD children and score lower in language tests until the age of 6;0 years. The language differences between these two groups of children persist partially until the age of 5;0 years even when the two children with manifested DLD within the group of children with LD are excluded from analyses. Beyond that age, no differences in the language skills between children with and without a history of LD are found when children with a manifest DLD are excluded. The findings support the assumption of an integrated speech-gesture communication system, which functions similarly in TD children and children with LD or DLD, but with a time delay.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Integrated Communication System: Gesture and Language Acquisition in Typically Developing Children and Children With LD and DLD

et al. 2020

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“…During this home visit children and parents completed a number of structured and semistructured gesture tasks. Child gesture and parent gesture data are reported elsewhere (Wray & Norbury, 2017;Wray et al, 2018). Prior to the home visit background data were collected in school through the SCALES study.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do parents of school-aged children respond to their children's extending gestures?

2019

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Gesture plays an important role in early language development, as how parents respond to their children's gestures may help to facilitate language acquisition. Less is known about whether parental responses facilitate language learning later in childhood and whether responses vary depending on children's language ability. This study explored parental responses to extending gestures in a sample of school-aged children (aged six to eight years) with developmental language disorder, low-language and educational concerns, and typically developing children. Overall there were no group differences in the types of responses parents provided to extending gestures. Parents predominantly responded with positive feedback but also displayed moderate proportions of verbal translations and clarification requests. Within the DLD group, the proportion of parent translations was negatively associated with language ability. Our finding suggests that parent responses serve to enhance communication and engage children in tasks, but there is limited evidence that they support new language learning at this age.

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“…Not only is gesture facilitative of vocabulary development, with increased early child gesture use predicting larger future vocabulary size (Brooks & Meltzoff, 2008; Fenson et al, 1994; Kuhn et al, 2014), but also caregiver gesture use can predict early child gesture use (Rowe et al, 2008) and offer highly valuable information for word‐referent mapping (Cartmill et al 2013). Caregivers also alter gestures according to whether an object is familiar to their child as well as present or absent (Vigliocco et al, 2019), and in response to increased task complexity when communicating with children with delayed language development (Wray & Norbury, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%