Lecture 3 - Gestures

• Gestures


  Fundamental part of human communication, used in every culture
• Even blind individuals gesture when communicating
• Gesture and language


  Innate link, e.g. Nicaraguan Sign Language created spontaneously
• Gestures are not emblems or sign language, which are culturally specific
• Gesture development in infants

  • Important in early communication
• Types of gestures


  • Ostensive (giving/showing objects)
  • Deictic (pointing)
  • Iconic (semantic, metaphorical)
• Vygotsky's view on infant communication

  May not begin intentionally, but learned through association
• Gestures


  Signal oncoming advances in speech
• Gesture milestones


  • 6 months: hand babbling
  • 10 months: word comprehension, use of deictic and culturally derived gestures
  • 12 months: first words and symbolic gestures, complementary gestures and single words
  • 18 months: 2 word stage and supplementary gesture-speech combinations
• Pretend play - enactive naming


  Infants learn response associations through repeated experiences with caregivers
• Functions of gestures


  • Imperative pointing (get parent to do something)
  • Declarative pointing (point something out)
  • Perspective taking (help others, make others feel things, make others do things)
• Cultural differences in gestures

  American children have fewer symbolic gestures but more pointing, Italian children have more symbolic gestures