Increasing deictic gesture use to support the language development of toddlers from high poverty backgrounds☆
Section snippets
Gesture use as a prelinguistic predictor of language outcomes
Developmental research consistently indicates that before words emerge, gestures serve a critical function in the child’s growing expressive communication abilities (Crais, Douglas, & Campbell, 2004; Iverson & Goldin-Meadow, 2005; Watt, Wetherby, & Shumway, 2006). Towards the end of a child’s first year and into the second, deictic gestures like reaching, pointing, showing, and giving offer children a mechanism to seek linguistic input from their caregivers while engaging with a familiar adult
The caregiver’s role in gesture development
Caregivers play a critical role in supporting a child’s gesture development by responding to child gestures with words that “translate” the gesture into language and by modeling gestures to provide supportive cues that augment the adult’s linguistic input. A caregiver’s responsiveness to an infant or toddler’s gestures predicts how quickly and how well a child’s symbolic language skills develop (Dimitrova, Özçalışkan, & Adamson, 2016; Rowe & Goldin-Meadow, 2009). When a caregiver responds with
Interventions to support gesture use
While there are a number of language interventions that seek to support child language in the preschool period, fewer interventions target gesture use in young children who are at risk for communication delays due to their low-SES backgrounds (Vallotton, 2009). Some studies have taught “baby signs” or symbolic gestures to support infant and toddler communication (Vallotton, 2012), but fewer interventions teach deictic gestures as a primary outcome. In one recent experimental study of 15
Participants
Two girls and one boy between the ages of 13 months and 18 months at entry participated in the study. Children were included if they were not eligible for Part C services, were between 12 and 18 months of age, and met the income qualifications of EHS programs. Participant children attended an Early Head Start (EHS) center, and their families qualified for services based on their low-income levels. Two of the three children were African-American and one child was biracial (African-American and
Results
All three participants showed an increase in their use of deictic gestures subsequent to intervention. Specific trends and secondary dependent variables are described below and are displayed in Fig. 1.
Discussion
This study offers preliminary data about the effectiveness of an intervention designed to increase the rate of deictic gesture use in toddlers at risk for language delays due to their SES. All three children showed immediate and positive changes in their rates of deictic gesture use that only occurred after the onset of intervention, and all obtained rates of gesture use outlined in descriptive research as being typical of their age range (Wetherby et al., 1988). Two of the three children
References (48)
- et al.
Comparing public, private, and informal preschool programs in a national sample of low-income children
Early Childhood Research Quarterly
(2016) - et al.
The relation between pointing and language development: A meta-analysis
Developmental Review
(2010) - et al.
Advancing the construct validity of the Early Communication Indicator for infants and toddlers: Equivalence of growth trajectories across two Early Head Start samples
Early Childhood Research Quarterly
(2013) - et al.
Evidence of a continuum in foundational expressive communication skills
Early Childhood Research Quarterly
(2013) - et al.
Early gesture, early vocabulary, and risk of language impairment in preschoolers
Research in Developmental Disabilities
(2016) - et al.
Sources of variability in children’s language growth
Cognitive Psychology
(2010) Cross-sectional and longitudinal observations of pointing gestures by infants and their caregivers in Japan
Cognitive Development
(2017)- et al.
Between-case standardized effect size analysis of single case research designs; examination of the two methods
Research in Developmental Disabilities
(2018) Infant signs as intervention? Promoting symbolic gestures for preverbal children in low-income families supports responsive parent–child relationships
Early Childhood Research Quarterly
(2012)- et al.
Parent-implemented communication intervention: Sequential analysis of triadic relationships
Topics in Early Childhood Special Education
(2016)
The intersection of the development of gestures and intentionality
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
Use of gesture development in profiling children’s prelinguistic communication skills
American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
Parents’ translations of child gesture facilitate word learning in children with autism, Down syndrome and typical development
Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders
Infants temporally coordinate gesture-speech combinations before they produce their first words
Speech Communication
SES differences in language processing skill and vocabulary are evident at 18 months
Developmental Science
“My baby and me”: Effects of an early, comprehensive parenting intervention on at-risk mothers and their children
Developmental Psychology
Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children
Closing the 30-million-word gap: Next steps in designing research to inform practice
Child Development Perspectives
Gesture paves the way for language development
Psychological Science (0956-7976)
Parent-implemented Enhanced-Milieu Teaching with preschool children who have intellectual disabilities
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
Enhancing generalized teaching strategy use in daily routines by parents of children with autism
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
Do pointing gestures by infants provoke comments from adults?
Infant Behavior and Development
Single-case designs technical documentation
What works clearinghouse
Cited by (0)
- ☆
We are grateful for the children and families who participated in this project. We also extend special thanks to Kayla Ramsey, whose hard work and dedication to coding and analysis was critical to the completion of this manuscript.