Meaningful Gestures Research Articles

Assessment of pragmatic language in verbal and nonverbal autistic children

Theoretical backgroundLanguage abnormalities in autism spectrum disorder show diversity in their interpretation as well as complexity regarding their evaluation processes. The contribution of the speech therapist in multidisciplinary diagnostic process emphasizes the need to assess the parameters of sociopragmatic nature. AimTo investigate the pragmatic language field of verbal and nonverbal autistic children. MethodsThirty-one children, between 3 and 7 years of age, diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, had their pragmatic abilities assessed by the ABFW test (the language test for young children vocabulary). ResultsThe total number of nonverbal autistic patients were 27 (87%). The communicative acts total in this sample was 2.4 per minute, and the communicative mean most commonly used by this autistic sample was the gestural mean. The communicative space occupied by children within the dyad was 47.7%. There was a statistically significant difference between the use of abilities that are categorized as interpersonal or non-interpersonal functions between verbal and nonverbal autistics. The comparison of each function between verbal and nonverbal patients showed statistically significant differences in the following functions:“Performative”, “Comment”, “Information request”, “Naming” and “Permission request” for the group of verbal patients, and “Exploratory” and “Game” functions for the nonverbal group. Use of “Self-regulatory”, “Exhibition”, and “Social routine request” functions was not encountered in this sample. ConclusionAlthough the verbal and nonverbal autistic children groups displayed discrepant communicative profiles, both groups showed a greater potential for pragmatic language in the setting of a naturalistic evaluation.

The EEG and fMRI signatures of neural integration: An investigation of meaningful gestures and corresponding speech

One of the key features of human interpersonal communication is our ability to integrate information communicated by speech and accompanying gestures. However, it is still not fully understood how this essential combinatory process is represented in the human brain. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have unanimously attested the relevance of activation in the posterior superior temporal sulcus/middle temporal gyrus (pSTS/MTG), while electroencephalography (EEG) studies have shown oscillatory activity in specific frequency bands to be associated with multisensory integration. In the current study, we used fMRI and EEG to separately investigate the anatomical and oscillatory neural signature of integrating intrinsically meaningful gestures (IMG; e.g. “Thumbs-up gesture”) and corresponding speech (e.g., “The actor did a good job”). In both the fMRI (n=20) and EEG (n=20) study, participants were presented with videos of an actor either: performing IMG in the context of a German sentence (GG), IMG in the context of a Russian (as a foreign language) sentence (GR), or speaking an isolated German sentence without gesture (SG). The results of the fMRI experiment confirmed that gesture–speech processing of IMG activates the posterior MTG (GG>GR∩GG>SG). In the EEG experiment we found that the identical integration process (GG>GR∩GG>SG) is related to a centrally-distributed alpha (7–13Hz) power decrease within 700–1400ms post-onset of the critical word. These new findings suggest that BOLD response increase in the pMTG and alpha power decrease represent the neural correlates of integrating intrinsically meaningful gestures with their corresponding speech.

Medieval Visual Metaphors and Beasts Noble and Savage

D. I. Antonov and M. R. Maizul's, Demony i greshniki v drevnerusskoi ikonografii: Semiotika obraza (Demons and Sinners in Old Russian Iconography: The Semiotics of the Image). 384 pp. Moscow: Indrik, 2011. ISBN-13 978-5916741490. Aleksandr E. Makhov, Srednevekovyi obraz: Mezhdu teologiei i ritorikoi. Opyt tolkovaniia vizual 'noi demonologii (The Medieval Image: Between Teleology and Rhetoric. An Attempt at an Interpretation ofVisual Demonology) .256 pp. Moscow: Izdatel'stvo Kulaginoi--Intrada, 2011. ISBN-13 978-5903955053. E. V. Pchelov, Bestiarii Moskovskogo tsarstva: Zhivotnye v emblematike Moskovskoi Rusi kontsa XV-XVII vv. (A Bestiary of the Muscovite Tsardom: Animals in the Emblems of Muscovite Russia from the Late 15th through the 17th Centuries). 202 pp. Moscow: Staraia Basmannaia, 2011. ISBN-13 978-5904043476. The authors of these three volumes closely examine how medieval European and Muscovite artists used bestiary images in attempting to capture the liminal moment that revealed the true nature of demons and sinners, on the one hand, and reinforced the majesty of the state, on the other. Both the monograph by Makhov and that by Antonov and Maizul's focus on visual animal imagery that reflects the darker side of liminality to represent the dark mirror of the soul. Pchelov, in contrast, investigates the Muscovites' transformation of many of these same creatures into noble emblems of state power. All three studies explore symbolic worlds characterized by an underlying duality that is especially evident in allegorical representations of beasts meant to illustrate noble or ignoble aspects of humanity. (1) A. E. Makhov focuses on the changing image of demons in the emerging Christian culture of the West. He sees the development of West European medieval visual demonology as a reflection of both theological and rhetorical concepts. Just as writers of the period interwove contradictory elements to produce literary works simultaneously concealing and revealing truth, so artists transformed the visual image into a theologically significant narration uniting disparate elements that characterized the medieval epitome of beauty. He finds this multifaceted approach reflected especially clearly in the development of the iconography of the devil, whose image was required to embody recognizable scriptural and liturgical elements symbolizing the demonic nature. Drawing upon an impressive body of representations of demons in paintings, frescoes, architectural details, and manuscript illustrations gathered from churches, museums, and libraries throughout Western Europe and the United States, Makhov skillfully interleaves visual and textual evidence into his analysis of this medieval image's construction. One or more black-and white illustrations accompany almost every page of text, and a central insert contains 32 pages of full-color plates, most with multiple images, all referenced clearly in the text. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Makhov focuses most extensively on the theology of the demonic image, beginning with the devil's origins in Lucifer's pride. The fallen angel's rebellion upset the peaceful foundation upon which creation was based. Having caused this imbalance, the devil is literally out of order. His disordered essence fragmented into innumerable variations, reflecting a state of diminishment (umalenie) that transformed the devil into the king of the material world. In the end, however, the devil plays an essential role in the fulfillment of God's plan, serving as the tempter and punisher, without whom the righteous would not win their reward. The first part of the monograph (15-187) juxtaposes texts and images to demonstrate the theological meaning of demonic poses, gestures, and guises. For example, by raising a foot or dancing over die mouth of Hades to celebrate power over sinners, the devil contrasts demonic disorder with angelic stillness. He can even assume the form of an angel. …

The parallel development of the form and meaning of two-handed gestures and linguistic information packaging within a clause in narrative

AbstractWe examined how two-handed gestures and speech with equivalent contents that are used in narrative develop during childhood. The participants were 40 native speakers of English consisting of four different age groups: 3-, 5-, 9-year-olds, and adults. A set of 10 video clips depicting motion events were used to elicit speech and gesture. There are two findings. First, two types of two-handed gestures showed different developmental changes: those with a single-handed stroke with a simultaneous hold increased with age, while those with a two handed-stroke decreased with age. Second, representational gesture and speech developed in parallel at the discourse level. More specifically, the ways in which information is packaged in a gesture and in a clause are similar for a given age group; that is, gesture and speech develop hand-in-hand.

Predictive distant operation and virtual control of computer numerical control machines

With the advancements of automation technologies, factory operations have shifted from labor-based to semi-automatic and fully automatic and may even become unmanned in the future. Therefore, the conditions of a factory can be monitored from a distance and the machines can be remotely controlled. This study investigated the predictive distant operation of a computer numerical control (CNC) machine virtually controlled with hand gestures. Similar previous studies were conducted only involving robotic arms. Nevertheless, the attempt in this study is a crucial step toward entirely Internet- or cloud-based manufacturing. In the proposed methodology, meaningful hand gestures corresponding to eight commonly used CNC operations were established. Kinect was then used to track the skeletal information of an operator, and based on this information, the joint angles of the operator were derived using the space vector method. Four rules were then proposed to predict the hand gesture of the operator according to the changes of the joint angles when making the hand gestures to control the CNC machine. An experimental system was established to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed methodology. According to the experimental results, the eight hand gestures were recognized with favorable accuracy. In addition, analysis of variance was performed and the results indicated that the performance of the proposed methodology is robust to the operators' differences.

The Power of Meaningful Gestures in Teaching and Learning Literacy in Early Childhood Education Centres in the Cape Coast Metropolis

Children come to school with emergent literacy which teachers need to build on to enhance early literacy acquisition in both the first language (L1) and the target language (L2) which in the case of Ghana is English Language. One of the supporting systems used to enhance effective teaching and learning is meaningful gestures such as iconic, metaphoric, deictic, and beat. The aim of the study is to find out how teachers use meaningful gestures to enhance effective teaching and learning of literacy in early childhood centres. Ten early childhood centres in the Cape Coast Metropolis in the Central Region of Ghana, consisting of 5 public and 5 private schools were selected. Observation and interviews were used for the data collection and analysed. The result indicated that most teachers use meaningful gestures only when they are teaching recitation. Little attention is paid to the use of gestures in other literacy lessons such as storytelling, reading, listening and speaking, and community circle time. Based on the findings, it has been recommended that early childhood education teachers should be educated on the use of meaningful gestures alongside speech in promoting early literacy acquisition.

Gest fotograficzny: między symptomem a etosem

Artykuł zawiera szereg teoretycznych rozważań na temat znaczenia gestu w fotografii. Autor stara się w nim wprowadzić etyczną perspektywę analizy tej kategorii rozwijając rozmaite koncepcje gestu w fotografii (Durand, Flusser), a także ukazując ich powiązania z pojęciem symptomu (Freud) z jednej, i etosu (Ravaisson, Bourdieu) z drugiej strony.

Vision-Based Hand Gesture Spotting and Recognition Using CRF and SVM

In this paper, a novel gesture spotting and recognition technique is proposed to handle hand gesture from continuous hand motion based on Conditional Random Fields in conjunction with Support Vector Machine. Firstly, YCbCr color space and 3D depth map are used to detect and segment the hand. The depth map is to neutralize complex background sense. Secondly, 3D spatio-temporal features for hand volume of dynamic affine-invariants like elliptic Fourier and Zernike moments are extracted, in addition to three orientations motion features. Finally, the hand gesture is spotted and recognized by using the discriminative Conditional Random Fields Model. Accordingly, a Support Vector Machine verifies the hand shape at the start and the end point of meaningful gesture, which enforces vigorous view invariant task. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed method can successfully spot and recognize hand gesture from continuous hand motion data with 92.50% recognition rate.

NOMINAL AND IMPERATIVE ICONIC GESTURES USED BY THE KHOISAN OF NORTH WEST BOTSWANA TO COORDINATE HUNTING

Twenty-three elderly males from nine Khoisan ethnic communities currently living in Botswana were interviewed in August 2012. The interviews concerned the audio (paralinguistic) and gestural means of communication that the men use during hunting. Hunters sometimes command attention through whistles, clicks and bird-like chatter, but communica- tion is mainly gestural. Deictic (pointing) gestures are used to indicate the location of game and are followed by iconic hand movements to direct hunting partners. Both types of gestures, as well as audio signals, function as imperatives. They are accompanied by nominal iconic hand gestures that communicate the identity of the game by reproducing salient features, such as horns, tusks, ears, and tails. !Xo hand shapes are frequently based on the contours of an animal's spoor and suggest reduced iconicity. In addition, kinesthetic adverbial features are sometimes used to portray the behavior of the game. There was also some evidence of adjectival modifica - tion of deictic (pointing) gestures. A taxonomic lexicon of nominal iconic gestures that depict animals was constructed. Analysis of the hunting communication system revealed the possibil- ity of a basic syntax.

Where language meets meaningful action: a combined behavior and lesion analysis of aphasia and apraxia.

It is debated how language and praxis are co-represented in the left hemisphere (LH). As voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping in LH stroke patients with aphasia and/or apraxia may contribute to this debate, we here investigated the relationship between language and praxis deficits at the behavioral and lesion levels in 50 sub-acute stroke patients. We hypothesized that language and (meaningful) action are linked via semantic processing in Broca's region. Behaviorally, half of the patients suffered from co-morbid aphasia and apraxia. While 24% (n = 12) of all patients exhibited aphasia without apraxia, apraxia without aphasia was rare (n = 2, 4%). Left inferior frontal, insular, inferior parietal, and superior temporal lesions were specifically associated with deficits in naming, reading, writing, or auditory comprehension. In contrast, lesions affecting the left inferior frontal gyrus, premotor cortex, and the central region as well as the inferior parietal lobe were associated with apraxic deficits (i.e., pantomime, imitation of meaningful and meaningless gestures). Thus, contrary to the predictions of the embodied cognition theory, lesions to sensorimotor and premotor areas were associated with the severity of praxis but not language deficits. Lesions of Brodmann area (BA) 44 led to combined apraxic and aphasic deficits. Data suggest that BA 44 acts as an interface between language and (meaningful) action thereby supporting parcellation schemes (based on connectivity and receptor mapping) which revealed a BA 44 sub-area involved in semantic processing.

Talking hands: tongue motor excitability during observation of hand gestures associated with words.

Perception of speech and gestures engage common brain areas. Neural regions involved in speech perception overlap with those involved in speech production in an articulator-specific manner. Yet, it is unclear whether motor cortex also has a role in processing communicative actions like gesture and sign language. We asked whether the mere observation of hand gestures, paired and not paired with words, may result in changes in the excitability of the hand and tongue areas of motor cortex. Using single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), we measured the motor excitability in tongue and hand areas of left primary motor cortex, while participants viewed video sequences of bimanual hand movements associated or not-associated with nouns. We found higher motor excitability in the tongue area during the presentation of meaningful gestures (noun-associated) as opposed to meaningless ones, while the excitability of hand motor area was not differentially affected by gesture observation. Our results let us argue that the observation of gestures associated with a word results in activation of articulatory motor network accompanying speech production.

Hearing and seeing meaning in speech and gesture: insights from brain and behaviour.

As we speak, we use not only the arbitrary form-meaning mappings of the speech channel but also motivated form-meaning correspondences, i.e. iconic gestures that accompany speech (e.g. inverted V-shaped hand wiggling across gesture space to demonstrate walking). This article reviews what we know about processing of semantic information from speech and iconic gestures in spoken languages during comprehension of such composite utterances. Several studies have shown that comprehension of iconic gestures involves brain activations known to be involved in semantic processing of speech: i.e. modulation of the electrophysiological recording component N400, which is sensitive to the ease of semantic integration of a word to previous context, and recruitment of the left-lateralized frontal-posterior temporal network (left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), medial temporal gyrus (MTG) and superior temporal gyrus/sulcus (STG/S)). Furthermore, we integrate the information coming from both channels recruiting brain areas such as left IFG, posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS)/MTG and even motor cortex. Finally, this integration is flexible: the temporal synchrony between the iconic gesture and the speech segment, as well as the perceived communicative intent of the speaker, modulate the integration process. Whether these findings are special to gestures or are shared with actions or other visual accompaniments to speech (e.g. lips) or other visual symbols such as pictures are discussed, as well as the implications for a multimodal view of language.

Human–Robot Interaction by Understanding Upper Body Gestures

In this paper, a human–robot interaction system based on a novel combination of sensors is proposed. It allows one person to interact with a humanoid social robot using natural body language. The robot understands the meaning of human upper body gestures and expresses itself by using a combination of body movements, facial expressions, and verbal language. A set of 12 upper body gestures is involved for communication. This set also includes gestures with human–object interactions. The gestures are characterized by head, arm, and hand posture information. The wearable Immersion CyberGlove II is employed to capture the hand posture. This information is combined with the head and arm posture captured from Microsoft Kinect. This is a new sensor solution for human-gesture capture. Based on the posture data from the CyberGlove II and Kinect, an effective and real-time human gesture recognition method is proposed. The gesture understanding approach based on an innovative combination of sensors is the main contribution of this paper. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed gesture recognition method, a human body gesture data set is built. The experimental results demonstrate that our approach can recognize the upper body gestures with high accuracy in real time. In addition, for robot motion generation and control, a novel online motion planning method is proposed. In order to generate appropriate dynamic motion, a quadratic programming (QP)-based dual-arms kinematic motion generation scheme is proposed, and a simplified recurrent neural network is employed to solve the QP problem. The integration of a handshake within the HRI system illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed online generation method.

A novel set of features for continuous hand gesture recognition

Applications requiring the natural use of the human hand as a human–computer interface motivate research on continuous hand gesture recognition. Gesture recognition depends on gesture segmentation to locate the starting and end points of meaningful gestures while ignoring unintentional movements. Unfortunately, gesture segmentation remains a formidable challenge because of unconstrained spatiotemporal variations in gestures and the coarticulation and movement epenthesis of successive gestures. Furthermore, errors in hand image segmentation cause the estimated hand motion trajectory to deviate from the actual one. This research moves toward addressing these problems. Our approach entails using gesture spotting to distinguish meaningful gestures from unintentional movements. To avoid the effects of variations in a gesture’s motion chain code (MCC), we propose instead to use a novel set of features: the (a) orientation and (b) length of an ellipse least-squares fitted to motion-trajectory points and (c) the position of the hand. The features are designed to support classification using conditional random fields. To evaluate the performance of the system, 10 participants signed 10 gestures several times each, providing a total of 75 instances per gesture. To train the system, 50 instances of each gesture served as training data and 25 as testing data. For isolated gestures, the recognition rate using the MCC as a feature vector was only 69.6 % but rose to 96.0 % using the proposed features, a 26.1 % improvement. For continuous gestures, the recognition rate for the proposed features was 88.9 %. These results show the efficacy of the proposed method.

The Meanings of Chimpanzee Gestures

Chimpanzees' use of gesture was described in the first detailed field study [1, 2], and natural use of specific gestures has been analyzed [3-5]. However, it was systematic work with captive groups that revealed compelling evidence that chimpanzees use gestures to communicate in a flexible, goal-oriented, and intentional fashion [6-8], replicated across all great ape species in captivity [9-17] and chimpanzees in the wild [18, 19]. All of these aspects overlap with human language but are apparently missing in most animal communication systems, including great ape vocalization, where extensive study has produced meager evidence for intentional use ([20], but see [21, 22]). Findings about great ape gestures spurred interest in a potential common ancestral origin with components of human language [23-25]. Of particular interest, given the relevance to language origins, is the question of what chimpanzees intend their gestures to mean; surprisingly, the matter of what the intentional signals are used to achieve has been largely neglected. Here we present the first systematic study of meaning in chimpanzee gestural communication. Individual gestures have specific meanings, independently of signaler identity, and we provide a partial "lexicon"; flexibility is predominantly in the use of multiple gestures for a specific meaning. We distinguish a range of meanings, from simple requests associated with just a few gestures to broader social negotiation associated with a wider range of gesture types. Access to a range of alternatives may increase communicative subtlety during important social negotiations.

Relation entre dyspraxie gestuelle et dyslexie chez des enfants avec troubles des apprentissages

Gestures and language are thought as two cognitive functions that are closely linked. From an evolutionary point of view, recent theories suggest that language evolved from manual gestures, rather than from animal vocal call. Moreover, in developmental psychology, several studies have revealed the role of gestures in the development of language abilities. In neuropsychology, the recent cognitive models of praxis processing have been mapped onto the cognitive models of written language processing, further suggesting an analogy between the way gestures and higher language abilities are processed. If gestures have a role in language development, a deficit in processing gestures should affect reading abilities. We report the case of five children (three with visuo-constructive disorders, two with dyslexia and one with both visuo-constructive disorder and dyslexia) who were tested using a series of tasks targetting reading and praxis abilities. Tasks assessing recognition, comprehension and production of gestures and language were included to evaluate the integrity of the lexical routes. Tasks to evaluate imitation of meaningless gestures and the ability to read pseudo-words were also included to investigate the sub-lexical routes. Results showed that children having visuo-constructive disorders were also affected by limb dyspraxia and dyslexia and that the language and praxis profiles based on the cognitive models were similar. In particular, the two children with visuo-constructive disorders showed a deficit at the lexical and sub-lexical routes for both gestures and language; the child with both dyslexia and visuo-constructive disorders had difficulties in the production of meaningful gestures and in meaningless actions imitation, as well as in reading words and pseudo-words. This pattern of results was compatible with a deficit at the level of the buffers as proposed by the two cognitive models. The two dyslexic children did not show any sign of limb dyspraxia, and their dyslexia was mainly attributed to a deficit to the lexical and sub-lexical route in one case; and to the sub-lexical route in the other case. Overall, results showed that those children with deficits in gesture processing also had difficulties in reading, but that children presenting only dyslexia did not show any sign of praxis impairments. Taken together, these findings are in line with the idea that gesture might play a role in the development of language abilities.

A mark on the Canvas

This essay considers the meaning and importance of gesture on stage and screen. It analyses how gesture is used by actors as a means to advance narrative and to communicate feeling. Drawing on her own experiences in theatre and television, Jenkins addresses the crucial, critically instructive differences that exist between how an actor approaches gesture in on-camera acting and in acting on stage. The essay also reflects on how Jenkins’s training, particularly with Yat Malmgren, has influenced her outlook on gesture which she perceives as a vital dimension to the actor’s craft.

The effects of visual half-field priming on the categorization of familiar intransitive gestures, tool use pantomimes, and meaningless hand movements.

Although the control of meaningful gestures is one of the most left-lateralized functions, the relative contribution of the two hemispheres to their processing is still debated. We tested the effects of primes appearing in the left or right visual field in the form of pictures (Experiment 1), and words (Experiment 2) on categorization of movies showing intransitive (“communicative”) gestures, tool use (transitive) pantomimes, and meaningless movements. Fifteen participants (eight women) watched 36 movies (12 from each category) primed for 150 ms with either a congruent or incongruent stimulus followed by a 50-ms mask. On congruent trials, a picture or word was directly related to the presented gesture, including nonsense pictures or non-words for meaningless actions. On incongruent trials, a picture or word belonged to a different category. In Experiment 1, intransitive gestures were categorized significantly faster than the other two types of hand movements. Moreover, whereas the categorization of transitive gestures was significantly facilitated by congruent pictures on the right, the effect was weaker for intransitive, and reversed for meaningless movements. In Experiment 2, intransitive gestures were again categorized significantly faster, but transitive significantly slower than the other two gesture categories. Yet, there was now a significant facilitation of intransitive, and inhibition of transitive gesture categorization following congruent prime words in the right visual field, and significantly faster categorization of intransitive gestures following incongruent words in the left visual field. These outcomes lend support to the complexity account of differences in left-hemisphere representations of meaningful gestures reported in the neuropsychological, behavioral, and neuroimaging literature. Nevertheless, they also indicate that the representations of intransitive gestures show some differential, and sometimes counterintuitive sensitivity to right hemisphere processing.

Skin and Motion Cues Incorporated Covariance Matrix for Fast Hand Tracking System

Hand tracking is one of the essential elements in vision based hand gesture recognition sys- tem. The tracked hand image can provide a meaningful gesture for more natural ways of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) systems. In this paper, we present a fast hand tracking method based on the fusion of skin and motion features incorporated covariance matrix. First, hand region is detected using a fusion of skin and motion cues, and a region of interest (ROI) is created around the detected region. During the tracking, skin and motion features are extracted around top, left and right corners of the ROI and hand displacement is measured using ROI based tracker. To increase the robustness, we incorporate a covariance matrix of the ROI window as a region descriptor to represent the target object. In the consecutive frames, we measure the distance descriptor covariance matrix (DDCM) between the target object and the covariance matrix extracted from new ROI position. When DDCM is not satisfying a certain acceptable threshold, ROI position is adjusted by shifting the ROI window around nearest neighbor to obtain a set of candidate regions. We assign a candidate region which has the smallest DDCM as the correct estimated ROI position. The experimental result shows that our approach can track the hand gesture under several real-live scenarios with a detection rate above 95% with the tracking speed at 42fps on average.

The Pattern and Function of Vocalization and Gesture in Nigerian Mother-Infant Interaction

The purpose of the study was to theorize on the ability of illiterate but experienced Igbo mothers to detect with accuracy infants’ social bids for appropriate care-giving. The study involved a participatory observation of two normal, full term infants, aged 0-3 months at different periods of their birth, by their mother-researcher. The social bids were food, sleep, comfort, and relief from pain. The period of observation for each infant was two months. The focus of observation was vocalization (distress and non-distress cry) and gestures (body movements and mouthing). The observations were recorded on daily basis in a journal for each period of observation. They were analyzed and compared to determine common features in the vocalizations, formal parameters of gestures, meaning of gestures, maternal response, and infants’ feedback. The findings revealed that vocalization served as automatic social arouser while the gestures encoded the social bids which the mother interpreted to provide appropriate care-giving. The study concluded that experienced but illiterate Igbo mothers relied on their interpretation of the formal parameters of the infants’ gestures to provide appropriate care-giving during the prelinguistic stage of the infant. Vocalization served as social arouser.