Gestures are actions produced with the intent of communicate. Gestures are typically expressed using fingers, hands, arms, facial features, and other body movements.
Children produce gestures before their first spoken words.
A 2009 study found that the number of gesture + speech combinations a child uses in early communication is a strong predictor of later language development.
Tracking early gesture development may help us determine if a child is at risk for a language delay.
Dietic Gestures: these are the earliest to develop. Pointing, reaching, showing, and giving are dietic gestures. Easy way to remember this? Dietic gestures are the first gestures babies and toddlers learn to use.
Conventional Gestures are those that are culturally specific. I found this to be interesting; we take for granted that we use certain gestures to mean certain things but that doesn’t mean they are universal. These are gestures like waving and nodding yes/no.
Iconic/Representational Gestures reflect the shape or form an object and give information about objects, actions, or abstract ideas: cupping your hand in a c shape to represent drink or enclosing your hand over your eyes like glasses or binoculars.
Beat Gestures emerge between 2 and 4. They are rhythmically tied to the prosodic features of speech and reflect social language development and an increase in MLU. These gestures do not convey meaning but are more in tune with the rhythm of speech. People who “talk with their hands” are using beat gestures.
Babies should have (and use) at least 16 gestures by the time they are 16 months old.
By the time they are one year old, babies will begin to point using their whole hand and, eventually, an isolated index finger. Babies learn to point through imitation, and caregivers and parents point to items and objects throughout the day, encouraging joint attention and labeling.
Pointing is also a sign that observational learning is occurring and the child is becoming more of a symbolic communicator.
Observational learning means the child is learning by observing and modeling the behavior of another person. In order for observational learning to occur a child must be able to remember, imitate, and have a reason to imitate the behavior. (that’s a lot of cognitive development, right?)
Symbolic communication occurs when the child is able to use symbols to convey information or express their ideas, feelings, or beliefs. Being to able to refuse something, choose an item of interest, or make a choice based on preference.
Here are 3 ways you can encourage gesture development!
Check out my handbook, Communicate & Connect for more information on gestures and language development!
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