Unpacking the Ontogeny of Gesture Understanding: How Movement Becomes Meaningful Across Development

Gestures, hand movements that accompany speech, affect children's learning, memory, and thinking (e.g., Goldin‐Meadow, 2003). However, it remains unknown how children distinguish gestures from other kinds of actions. In this study, 4‐ to 9‐year‐olds (n = 339) and adults (n = 50) described one o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inChild development Vol. 89; no. 3; pp. e245 - e260
Main Authors Wakefield, Elizabeth M., Novack, Miriam A., Goldin‐Meadow, Susan
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.05.2018
Subjects
Adult
Child
Child Development - physiology
Child, Preschool
Children
Comprehension - physiology
Female
Gestures
Hand movements
Humans
Learning
Male
Memory
Middle Aged
Motivation
Movement - physiology
Moving objects
Older children
Ontogeny
Speech
Touch
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Summary:Gestures, hand movements that accompany speech, affect children's learning, memory, and thinking (e.g., Goldin‐Meadow, 2003). However, it remains unknown how children distinguish gestures from other kinds of actions. In this study, 4‐ to 9‐year‐olds (n = 339) and adults (n = 50) described one of three scenes: (a) an actor moving objects, (b) an actor moving her hands in the presence of objects (but not touching them), or (c) an actor moving her hands in the absence of objects. Participants across all ages were equally able to identify actions on objects as goal directed, but the ability to identify empty‐handed movements as representational actions (i.e., as gestures) increased with age and was influenced by the presence of objects, especially in older children.
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ISSN:0009-3920
1467-8624
DOI:10.1111/cdev.12817