You may point, but do not touch: Impact of gesture‐types and cognition on language in typical and atypical development

Abstract

Background: Evidence shows that the relation with the referent (object manipulation, contact/no contact pointing) and the different hand features (index finger/open palm) when pointing indicate different levels of cognitive and linguistic attainment in typical development (TD). This evidences the close link between pointing, cognition and language in TD, but this relation is understudied in autism. Moreover, the longitudinal pathway these abilities follow remains unexplored and it is unclear what specific role (predictor or mediator) pointing and cognition have in both typical and atypical language development. Aims: The first aim was to investigate whether pointing hand features (index finger/open palm) and relation with the referent (manipulation, contact and no contact pointing) similarly predict language in children with and without autism. The second aim was to explore whether cognition mediates the longitudinal relationship between pointing and language development. Methods & Procedures: Sixteen children with autism, 13 children at high risk (HR) for autism and 18 TD children participated in an interactive gestureelicitation task and were tested on standardised cognitive and expressive language batteries in a longitudinal design. A two-step analysis consisted of a stepwise linear regression and mediation analyses. First, the linear regression identified which hand features and types of relation with the referent predicted expressive language in all groups. Second, three mediation analyses (one per group) assessed the predictor/mediator role of the variables that met significance in the regression analysis.Outcomes & Results: Both cognition and index finger pointing were direct longitudinal predictors of further expressive language skills in the autism group. In TD and HR groups this relation was mediated by age. Conclusions & Implications: Findings highlight the role of age in communicative development, but suggest a key role of cognition and index finger use in the longitudinal relationship between pointing gestures and expressive language development in children with autism. This has important clinical implicationsThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

In Bilinguals' Hands: Identification of Bilingual, Preverbal Infants at Risk for Language Delay

“…In two high risk populations—siblings of children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis and preterm born infants with an extremely low gestational age—Sansavini et al ( 9 ) established that those children who turned out to have a LD between 24 and 36 months produced fewer index-finger points at 18 months of age than typical developing (TD) children. The predictive value of index-finger pointing for later language skills in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder was also found by Ramos-Cabo et al ( 18 ).…”

Editorial: The Notion of the Native Speaker Put to the Test: Recent Research Advances

“…However, no relationship can be established later, as other communication skills which are more directly related to language take over as predictors. In contrast, for infants and children with autism, pointing gestures continue to exert a strong predictive relationship also at later stages, as shown by Ramos-Cabo et al ( 2022 ). Neuro-developmental deficits also highlight the fact that not all children, who, on other criteria may be considered native speakers, achieve uniform ultimate attainment in the first language, either as a result of impairment in the mechanisms which underlie language acquisition, such as the phonological loop of the memory system or impairment in the mechanisms which ensure efficient language use, e.g., phonological processing problems or attention deficits (Bishop, 2009 ).…”

The Notion of the Native Speaker Put to the Test: Recent Research Advances

“…However, no relationship can be established later, as other communication skills which are more directly related to language take over as predictors. In contrast, for infants and children with autism, pointing gestures continue to exert a strong predictive relationship also at later stages, as shown by Ramos-Cabo et al (2022). Neurodevelopmental deficits also highlight the fact that not all children, who, on other criteria may be considered native speakers, achieve uniform ultimate attainment in the first language, either as a result of impairment in the mechanisms which underlie language acquisition, such as the phonological loop of the memory system or impairment in the mechanisms which ensure efficient language use, e.g., phonological processing problems or attention deficits (Bishop, 2009).…”