Impact of Gestures On Language Acquisition

The impact of gestures on language acquisition is significant, in that they create a bridge from pre-verbal communication to speech.

Gestures are present early in development, and are used to communicate before a child has the ability to vocalize. Once the child has the ability to speak, gestures are used to express thoughts that are not expressed vocally; eventually, gestures complement vocalized ideas. Being encouraged to use gestures early on causes a rapid onset of vocal language and a larger vocabulary. Gestures not only complement language development but also enhance the child’s ability to communicate. Communication usually consists of a blend of verbal and non-verbal transmission of information. Language development has been used to refer exclusively to the development of verbal language. When telling a story, along with streams of sounds, there is a variety of spontaneous hand gestures. Gestures allow the speaker to convey a message or thought that is not easily expressed through verbal language.

The use of gestures paves the way for learning speech. Before a child can vocalize, they have the ability to understand language and communicate through deictic and iconic gestures. Early on, children use deictic gestures, which are seen around ten months old, and consist of pointing to or holding things up. Iconic gestures are used by children at eleven to twelve months old, and capture the features of their referents. Iconic gestures convey predicate information, like punching the air to refer to fighting. According to Ozcaliskan & Goldin-Meadow (2004), at fourteen months old, children use a vast majority of gestures that are usually produced along with verbal communication. At eighteen months, half of an average child’s speech is accompanied by gestures. The ways in which gestures are used are an indication of the developmental or conceptual ability of children.

Symbolic gesturing yields positive rather than negative effects on learning to talk. The incompatibility hypothesis, a belief that has been dominant for decades, states that the different modalities of communication (gestures, manual signs, speech, etc) are in competition of one another, and therefore learning one modality will suppress the acquisition of the other modality. Because of this hypothesis, in the past parents were advised not to use manual signs, as it would be detrimental to the child’s acquisition of natural speech (Loncke, 2013). On the contrary to this incompatibility hypothesis, in the absence of language, encouraging the use of gestures will not delay the verbal ability of children, rather, the experience of gesturing has a facilitative effect on early syntactical development. Communication is multimodal, meaning there is more than one channel used for communication (gesture, speech, picture, etc), which strengthens the overall communicative interaction. For example, speaking a word and pointing to a picture reinforce the communicative meaning and intent of the speaker (Loncke, 2013). Gesturing facilitates and enriches the relationship between parent and child. Between nine and eighteen months, the child, lacking full vocal abilities, will want to communicate with the parent, who must determine what message the child is trying to convey. It is during this time that gesturing becomes important. This is supported by the compatibility hypothesis, which condones the use of multimodal forms of communication, and claims that learning gestures will not hinder a child’s acquisition of normal speech and language.

For example, a mother bathing her eighteen month old daughter might be unaware that the water is too hot, but the child could indicate this through a gesture, rather than try to formulate a time-consuming verbal explanation. In fact, those children whose parents actively promoted the use of gesture vocabulary developed a broader verbal vocabulary at the onset of verbal communication than those parents that push their children to communicate verbally. Gestures are also seen as setting the stage for joint attention, when a child uses a gesture to refer to or point to something the parent usually gives the child the name for the object and the conversation is focused on the object of interest to the child, causing the child to retain the information. According to Vgot (2001), nonverbal communication generates a greater amount of words and promotes fast learning. It is dependent on the parents’ ability to understand the gestures and give a positive response to the use of gestures.

Not only do gestures play an important role in the natural development of spoken language, but they also are a major factor in Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). AAC refers to the methods, tools, and theories to use non-standard linguistic forms of communication by and with individuals without or with limited functional speech (Loncke, 2013). Means used to communicate in AAC can span from high-tech computer based communication devices, to low-tech means such as one-message switches, to non-tech means such as picture cards, manual signs, and gestures (Loncke, 2013). It is only within the last two decades that the importance of gestures in the cognitive and linguistic development processes has been examined, and in particular the gesture’s functionality for individuals with communication disorders, especially AAC users.

It is important to first realize the difference between manual signs and gestures. Gestures are distinct from manual signs in that they do not belong to a real language system (Loncke, 2013), however they are non-linguistic movements that can assume communicative meaning by a group of people or a culture. For example, the “thumbs up” is a widely used gesture that is understood by Americans to mean “good.” On the other hand, manual signs are conventionalized—they are gestures that have become a lexical element in a language. A good example of manual signing is American Sign Language (ASL)--when individuals communicate via ASL, their gestures have meanings that are equivalent to lexical elements (e.g., two people communicating using ASL both understand that tucking your thumb in between your right finger and pinky finger carries the lexical meaning of the letter “M.”).

In order to better understand the linguistic values that gestures hold, Adam Kendon, a pioneer in gesture research has proposed to look at it as a continuum from less linguistic to fully linguistic (Loncke, 2013). Using the continuum, speech declines as “the language-like properties of gestural behaviors increase and idiosyncratic gestures are replaced by socially regulated signs” (Blackstone, 2000).

Gestures of different kinds fall within this continuum and include spontaneous gesticulations, language-like gestures, pantomime, emblems, and sign language. Spontaneous gesticulations are not evident without the presence of speech, assisting in the process of vocalization, whereas language-like gestures are “iconic and metaphoric, but lack consistency and are context-dependent” (Blackstone, 2000). “Language-like gesture” implies that the gesture is assuming something linguistic (Loncke, 2013). Pantomime falls in the middle of the continuum and requires shared conventions. This kind of gesture helps convey information or describe an event.

Following pantomime are emblems, which have specific meanings to denote “feelings, obscenities, and insults” and are not required to be used in conjunction with speech (Blackstone, 2000). The most linguistic gesture on Kendon’s continuum is sign language, where “single manual signs have specific meanings and are combined with other manual signs according to specific rules” (Blackstone, 2000).

Gestures are noticeably evident in typically developing individuals prior to the development of speech as well as in conjunction with spoken language once advanced. In those who are unable to effectively communicate verbally and rely on AAC, gestural representations play a more important and dominant role. According to Loncke, “AAC just uses a natural phenomena in an organized and systematic way” (2013). Not only has research asserted that gestures aid in retrieving spoken language, but they are a successful, low-tech mode of communication without substantial costs. Moreover, they provide the AAC user with an initial lexicon to communicate his/her basic needs, thoughts, and emotions to other individuals. In all, gestures are utilized in diverse manners with AAC users rather than what is often thought of with the average individual. However, the activation of such gestures allows these users to reach higher potentials and institute beneficial communication.