Get to the point: Preschoolers’ spontaneous gesture use during a cardinality task

Abstract

Gesture is a powerful learning tool for language, mathematics, and general problem solving, although the specific function of gesture is subject to debate. To address this question, we characterized predictors of preschoolers’ spontaneous gestures while completing a cardinality task. We analyzed video data from 343 preschoolers (158 male, Mage = 4.07y) who participated in the Give-N task (Wynn, 1992), which is used to assess children's number knowledge and understanding of cardinality. Analyses revealed that children’s number knowledge positively predicted gesture use, even when controlling for age, suggesting that as children gain better understanding of the skills necessary to complete the task, they are more likely to use gesture to solve numerical tasks. Moreover, those who had not yet acquired an understanding of cardinality (subset knowers, who are said to not use pointing gestures) were shown to use an effective gestural strategy (pointing and counting). Spontaneous gesture use across all knower-levels was also found to increase as a function of trial difficulty (trials involving larger set sizes), such that children were most likely to gesture on trials that challenged their abilities. Overall, findings indicate that children rely upon gestures as a scaffold during cognitively difficult tasks, and it is their relevant knowledge, not their age, that predicts their likelihood of engaging in gesture.