Gesture and Symbolic Representation in Italian and English-Speaking Canadian 2-Year-Olds

• Published in: Child development Vol. 87; no. 3; pp. 944 - 961
• Main Authors: Marentette, Paula, Pettenati, Paola, Bello, Arianna, Volterra, Virginia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.05.2016; Wiley for the Society for Research in Child Development; Wiley-Blackwell
• Subjects: Canada; Canada - ethnology; Child Behavior - ethnology; Child Development; Child, Preschool; Children; Communication Skills; Cross-Cultural Comparison; EMPIRICAL ARTICLES; English; Female; Foreign Countries; Gestures; Humans; Italian; Italy; Italy - ethnology; Language Acquisition; Male; Middle Class; Naming; Non-verbal communication; Nonverbal Communication; Pictorial Stimuli; Preschool children; Symbolism; Task Analysis; Toddlers; Canada; Italy
• ISSN: 0009-3920; 1467-8624
• DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12523

Analyses of elicited pantomime, primarily of English-speaking children, show that preschool-aged children are more likely to symbolically represent an object with gestures depicting an object's form rather than its function. In contrast, anecdotal reports of spontaneous gesture production in younger children suggest that children use multiple representational techniques. This study examined the spontaneous gestures of sixty-four 2-year-old Italian children and English-speaking Canadian children, primarily from middle-class Caucasian families. The Italian children produced twice as many gestures as Canadian children in a picture-naming task but produced a similar range of representational techniques. Two-year-olds were equally likely to produce gestures depicting function as form. These data suggest young children's communicative skills are supported by a symbolic capacity that reflects contextual communicative demands.