Use Of Communicative Gestures Research Articles

Associations between observed and reported infant negative affectivity, fear and self-regulation, and early communicative development-Evidence from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study.

Self-regulation and language are intertwined abilities, but the nature of their relations in early childhood when both skills are still emerging is insufficiently understood. Our knowledge of the relations between early negative affectivity and preverbal and verbal communicative development is still limited. Further, observed and reported temperament capture how aspects of temperament operate in different settings but are rarely used in parallel in studies examining early language. During the period of rapid development, longitudinal studies are needed to identify early risk factors for delayed communicative development. We studied relations between aspects of emerging self-regulation and negative affectivity using both observations at 8months and mother-reports at 6 and 12months, and communicative development measured by gesturing and vocabulary at 14 and vocabulary at 30months in 183 children. Mother-reported self-regulation was related to a higher use of communicative gestures and observed self-regulation by gaze aversion to poorer receptive and expressive vocabulary at 14months, but neither was significantly associated with vocabulary at 30months. We found little evidence for associations between negative affectivity and fear in infancy and communicative development. Our findings highlight different aspects of self-regulation as both potential risk and protective factors for communicative development. Mixed results indicate a need for a more detailed examination of different strategies of self-regulation in different conditions and developmental stages to yield a deeper understanding of the relations between self-regulation in infancy and communicative development.

Gesture development in infancy: Effects of gender but not bilingualism

AbstractGesture is an important communication tool that provides insight into infants' early language and cognitive development and predicts later language skills. While bilingual school‐age children have been reported to gesture more than monolinguals, there is a lack of research examining gesture use in infants exposed to more than one language. In this preregistered study, we compared three groups of 14‐month‐old infants (N = 150) learning French and/or English: bilinguals (hearing a second language at least 25% of the time), exposed (hearing a second language 10%–24% of the time), and monolinguals (hearing one language 90% of the time or more). Parent‐reported use of communicative gestures was gathered from the MacArthur‐Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI). Results showed that the three language groups had similarly sized gesture repertoires, suggesting that language exposure did not affect gesture development at this age. However, a gender effect was found, where girls produced more types of gestures than boys. Overall, these results suggest that gender, but not language exposure, contributes to differences in gesture development in infancy.

Temperament is associated with the use of communicative gestures in infancy

AbstractTemperament is important to consider when investigating factors influencing communicative development in infancy. Existing research supporting the assumption that temperament and verbal language development are interrelated covers mainly verbal development in toddlerhood onward, but few studies focus on these relations in infancy. The present study of 91 infants from a general population pregnancy cohort in Finland used parent reports to investigate associations between temperament and the development of preverbal gesturing and receptive vocabulary in infancy. We found that infant temperament explained a substantially larger proportion of the variance in expressive communicative gesturing compared to receptive vocabulary. High Duration of orienting and Soothability, indicators of orienting/regulation capacity, and higher positive emotionality were found to be favourable for the use of communicative gestures. These temperament characteristics might promote interaction and thus advance communicative development. Knowledge on associations between infant temperament and communicative development is important in supporting outcomes in children with temperament characteristics possibly less favourable for communication development.Highlights The aim is to investigate how temperament traits relate to gesture use and receptive vocabulary in infants. Temperament was assessed at 6 and 12 months and receptive vocabulary and gesture use at 12 months using parental reports. Temperament was found to relate to communicative development in infancy, and to use of communicative gestures in particular.

Communicative Gestures in Prelinguistic Periods as Predictors of Later Language Development in Korean Toddlers

ë°°ê²½ 및 ëª©ì  ì–¸ì–´ì´ì „ 시기의 ì˜ì‚¬ì†Œí†µì  몸짓 사용은 이후 언어발달과 ê´€ë ¨ì„ 갖는 것으로 ë³´ê³ ëœë‹¤. 본 연구는 ì–¸ì–´ì´ì „ 시기의 몸짓 사용이 이후 언어발달에 ì–´ë– í•œ 영향을 미치는지 살펴보는 것을 ëª©ì ìœ¼ë¡œ 하였다. 방법 연구 참가자는 K-CSBS DP 표준화 연구에 참여한 12–18개월의 ì˜ìœ ì•„ 중에서 24개월의 언어발달 ì¶”ì ì—°êµ¬ 참가에 동의한 42ëª ì´ì—ˆë‹¤. ì–¸ì–´ì´ì „ê¸°ì˜ 의사소통 몸짓은 12–18개월 사이에 수집된 CSBS DP 행동표본 중 4가지 의사소통 ìœ ë„ ì ˆì°¨ì™€ 5분의 소꿉놀이 및 ì± ë³´ê¸° 활동을 통해 얻어진 표본에서 ì „ì²´ ì˜ì‚¬ì†Œí†µì  몸짓 빈도, 몸짓 ìœ í˜• 수, 몸짓 범주별 사용 빈도, 개별 몸짓별 빈도를 ì¸¡ì •í•˜ì˜€ë‹¤. 24개월의 ì–¸ì–´ëŠ¥ë ¥ì€ SELSI와 K M-B CDI로 ì–¸ì–´ë°œë‹¬ì—°ë ¹(ìˆ˜ìš©ì–¸ì–´ì—°ë ¹, í‘œí˜„ì–¸ì–´ì—°ë ¹)ê³¼ 표현어휘 수로 ì¸¡ì •í•˜ì˜€ë‹¤. ê²°ê³¼ ì „ì²´ 몸짓 빈도, 몸짓 범주 중에서는 ì§€ì‹œì  범주의 몸짓 빈도가, 개별 몸짓 중에서는 손가락으로 가리키기 몸짓 빈도가 각각 ìˆ˜ìš©ì–¸ì–´ì—°ë ¹, í‘œí˜„ì–¸ì–´ì—°ë ¹, 표현어휘 수를 ìœ ì˜í•˜ê²Œ ì„¤ëª í•˜ëŠ” 것으로 나타났으며, ê´€ìŠµì  몸짓 빈도도 ìˆ˜ìš©ì–¸ì–´ì—°ë ¹ì„ ìœ ì˜í•˜ê²Œ ì„¤ëª í•˜ëŠ” 것으로 나타났다. ë ¼ì˜ 및 ê²°ë¡ ë³¸ 연구의 결과는 ì–¸ì–´ì´ì „ê¸°ì˜ 의사소통 몸짓 사용, 특히 몸짓 사용 빈도는 ë¬¼ë¡ ì§€ì‹œì  범주의 몸짓과 가리키기 몸짓을 통하여 이후 24개월의 발달을 ì˜ˆì¸¡í• ìˆ˜ 있음을 확인하였다. 본 연구의 결과는 ì–¸ì–´ì´ì „ 시기의 몸짓을 ë‹¤ê°ë©´ì ìœ¼ë¡œ 살펴보는 것이 이후의 언어발달을 확인 ì ˆì°¨ë¡œ í™œìš©ë ìˆ˜ 있다는 ì‹œì‚¬ì ì„ 갖는다. Keywords: 영아, ì˜ì‚¬ì†Œí†µì  몸짓, 몸짓 ìœ í˜•, ì§€ì‹œì  몸짓, 가리키기

Cultural diversification of communicative gestures through early childhood: A comparison of children in English-, German-, and Chinese- speaking families

Previous literature has demonstrated cultural differences in young children’s use of communicative gestures, but the results were mixed depending on which gestures were measured and what age of children were involved. This study included variety of different types of gestures and examined whether children’s use of communicative gestures varies by their cultural backgrounds and ages. 714 parents of children (6–36 months old) from U.S.A. English-, German-, and Taiwan Chinese- speaking countries completed the questionnaire on their children’s use of each gesture described in the survey. We used logistic regressions to examine the effect of children’s culture and age, and the interaction effect (culture×age). Children were more likely to use all gestures except reaching, showing, and smacking lips for “yum, yum” as their age increases. In addition, there were gestures that showed significantly different probabilities across children’s cultural backgrounds. A significant interaction effect was shown for five gestures: reaching, showing, pointing, arms up to be picked up, and “quiet” gesture. Results suggest that the influence of culture on young children’s communication emerges from infancy.

Vocal and gestural productions of 24-month-old children with sex chromosome trisomies.

Children with sex chromosome trisomies (SCT) frequently show problems in language development. However, a clear description of the communicative patterns of these children is still lacking. To describe the first stages of language development in children with SCT in comparison with those in typically developing (TD) children. The purpose was to verify the existence of possible differences in communicative skills (in both vocal and gestural modality) and identify the presence of possible early predictors (i.e., low vocabulary size and low gesture production) of later language impairment in children with SCT. Fifteen 24-month-old children with SCT (eight males with Klinefelter syndrome (KS) and seven females with triple X syndrome (TX)) and fifteen 24-month-old TD children (eight males and seven females) participated in the study. Their spontaneous communicative productions were assessed during a semi-structured play session in interaction with a parent. In addition, their vocabulary size was assessed using a parental report (the Italian version of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories). With regards to their vocabulary size, 60% of children with SCT (75% of children with KS and 43% of children with TX) were at risk for language impairments (i.e., they had a vocabulary size smaller than 50 words). In addition, TD children showed better lexical and syntactic skills than children with SCT in their spontaneous communicative productions. However, the production of communicative gestures was higher in children with SCT than in TD children. Boys with KS appeared to differ from TD males in more aspects of communication than girls with TX differed from TD females. The study showed the importance of early detection of language risk factors in children with SCT, while also considering the use of compensatory strategies (e.g., the use of communicative gestures).

Maternal sensitivity, infant co-operation and early linguistic development: Some predictive relations

Maternal sensitivity and infant co-operation during free play was analysed at the infant's age of 10 months and their contributions to early communicative and linguistic development at 12 months as well as later language outcome at 30 months were examined. In addition, the possible predictions of early skills to later development were considered. The participants were 27 Finnish-speaking mother – infant dyads. According to the results maternal sensitivity was associated with early intentional communication—particularly the use of communicative gestures, and also with symbolic behaviour and later comprehensive skills. No associations between infant co-operation and communicative and linguistic skills were found. As for expressive language skills, early capacities correlated with later outcome. The findings of the present study suggest that the effects of both maternal sensitivity and child characteristics on language development are likely to be specific rather than global.

Gestural, signed and spoken modalities in early language development: The role of linguistic input

The aim of the present study was to examine potential effects of early exposure to sign language on the use of communicative gestures by a bilingual hearing child of deaf parents. Data collected monthly during the first two years were analyzed in order to identify types and tokens of communicative gestures, words, and signs and the ways in which they were combined. These data are compared with those obtained from 12 monolingual hearing children observed at 16 and 20 months of age who were exposed only to spoken language. Findings suggest that while exposure to sign language does not seem to provide the bilingual child with an advantage in the rate of early linguistic development, it does appear to influence the extent to which he communicated in the manual modality and made use of its representational and combinatorial potential.

Early communication development in children with Rett syndrome

This retrospective pilot study investigated the course of pre-linguistic and linguistic communication development in children with Rett syndrome (RS) from birth to 24 months of age. Parents of 17 children with RS completed a questionnaire based on the Clinical Linguistic Auditory Milestone Scale. No child exceeded single word use and most children had begun to regress. Pre-regression delay was in evidence along with limited intentional gestural communication as a precursor to single word use. Limited use of communicative gestures is suggested as a possible early predictor of RS pending further investigation.

Taking the intentional stance at 12 months of age

This paper reports a habituation study indicating that 12-month-old infants can take the “intentional stance” in interpreting the goal-directed spatial behavior of a rational agent. First, we examine previous empirical claims suggesting that the ability to attribute intentions to others emerges during the second half of the first year. It is argued that neither the perceptual evidence (concerning the early ability to discriminate agents), nor the behavioral data (indicating the use of communicative gestures for instrumental purposes) are sufficient to support such claims about the early appearance of a theory of mind, as there are alternative explanations for these phenomena in terms of simpler psychological processes. It is then suggested that to show that an infant indeed attributes an intention to interpret the goal-directed behavior of a rational agent, one needs to demonstrate that the baby can generate an expectation about the most rational future means action that the agent will perform in a new situation to achieve its goal. We then describe a visual habituation study that meets this requirement. The results demonstrate that based on the equifinal structure of an agent's spatial behavior, 12-month-old infants can identify the agent's goal and interpret its actions causally in relation to it. Furthermore, our study indicates that infants of this age are able to evaluate the rationality of the agent's goal-directed actions, which is a necessary requirement for applying the intentional stance. In closing, we discuss some of the theoretical and methodological implications of our study.

The collateral decrease of self‐injurious behavior with teaching communicative gestures to individuals who are mentally retarded

AbstractThe present study assessed the effect of teaching communicative gestures on the occurrence of self‐injurious behavior and other behavior disorders with 14 individuals who are severely/ profoundly mentally retarded. Results show a statistically significant decrease of about 40% in self‐injurious behavior as a collateral effect of an increased use of communicative gestures. Apart from a decrease in the occurrence of destructive behaviors, no other effects on other behavior disorders were found. Results are discussed in terms of the possible use of communicative gestures as a therapeutic supplement to standard procedures for decreasing self‐injurious behavior with individuals who are nonverbal and mentally retarded.

Evaluating a ward staff program for increasing spontaneous and varied communicative gesturing with individuals who are mentally retarded

AbstractIn the present study we assessed the effect of a multifaceted program for ward staff members, which was intended to have severely/profoundly mentally retarded individuals improve their use of communicative gestures. The program consisted of instruction, verbal and visual (publicly posted) graphic feedback. There were two categories of dependent variables. The first category involved the number of gesture prompts by staff, number of unused opportunities to evoke gestures, and number of consequences given for gestures. The second category involved handicapped individuals' number of prompted gestures, number of spontaneous gestures, and number of different gestures. Results show that the program was effective with regard to all these variables. Changes in the number of spontaneous gestures were especially remarkable, as this variable had not been influenced directly. Follow‐up data underline the effectiveness of the program.