Abstract
Children vary widely in how quickly their vocabularies grow. Can looking at early gesture use in children and parents help us predict this variability? We videotaped 53 English-speaking parent-child dyads in their homes during their daily activities for 90-minutes every four months between child age 14 and 34 months. At 42 months, children were given the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT). We found that child gesture use at 14 months was a significant predictor of vocabulary size at 42 months, above and beyond the effects of parent and child word use at 14 months. Parent gesture use at 14 months was not directly related to vocabulary development, but did relate to child gesture use at 14 months which, in turn, predicted child vocabulary. These relations hold even when background factors such as socio-economic status are controlled. The findings underscore the importance of examining early gesture when predicting child vocabulary development.
Highlights
Young children vary dramatically in the size of their vocabularies
We examine the role played by gesture – both child’s and parent’s – in vocabulary development
36-month-old children whose parents point more when interacting with them have faster vocabulary growth than children whose parents point less. In both studies, when parents’ verbal input was taken into account, the relation between parent gesture and child vocabulary disappeared. These findings suggest that parent gesture and parent speech may be measuring similar properties and that, once parent speech is taken into account, nothing is gained by adding parent gesture to analyses of child vocabulary growth
Summary
Young children vary dramatically in the size of their vocabularies. Some 3-year-olds have over 1100 words in their vocabularies; others have fewer than 500 (Hart & Risley, 1995). Many studies have found a significant positive relation between the speech parents address to their children and the child’s vocabulary growth (Hart & Risley, 1995; Huttenlocher, Haight, Bryk, Seltzer & Lyons, 1991; Pan, Rowe, Singer & Snow, 2005). The speech parents address to children accounts for only a portion of the variation in children’s vocabulary growth, leaving room for other possible factors. Gesture has the potential to be related to child vocabulary growth in two ways: through the gestures that children themselves produce, and through the gestures that their parents produce. We examine the role played by gesture – both child’s and parent’s – in vocabulary development
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
