Gesture in Language: Development Across the Lifespan

Through constant exposure to adult input in interaction, children’s language gradually develops into rich linguistic constructions containing multiple cross-modal elements subtly used together for communicative functions. Sensorimotor schemas provide the "grounding" of language in experience and lead to children’s access to the symbolic function. With the emergence of vocal or signed productions, gestures do not disappear but remain functional and diversify in form and function as children become skilled adult multimodal conversationalists.

This volume examines the role of gesture over the human lifespan in its complex interaction with speech and sign. Gesture is explored in the different stages before, during, and after language has fully developed and a special focus is placed on the role of gesture in language learning and cognitive development. Specific chapters are devoted to the use of gesture in atypical populations.

CONTENTS

Contributors

Aliyah Morgenstern and Susan Goldin-Meadow
1 Introduction to Gesture in Language

Part I: An Emblematic Gesture: Pointing

Kensy Cooperrider and Kate Mesh
2 Pointing in Gesture and Sign

Aliyah Morgenstern
3 Early Pointing Gestures

Part II: Gesture Before Speech

Meredith L. Rowe, Ran Wei, and Virginia C. Salo
4 Early Gesture Predicts Later Language Development

Olga Capirci, Maria Cristina Caselli, and Virginia Volterra
5 Interaction Among Modalities and Within Development

Part III: Gesture With Speech During Language Learning

Eve V. Clark and Barbara F. Kelly
6 Constructing a System of Communication With Gestures and Words

Pauline Beaupoil-Hourdel
7 Embodying Language Complexity: Co-Speech Gestures Between Age 3 and 4

Casey Hall, Elizabeth Wakefield, and Susan Goldin-Meadow
8 Gesture Can Facilitate Children’s Learning and Generalization of Verbs

Part IV: Gesture After Speech Is Mastered

Jean-Marc Colletta
9 On the Codevelopment of Gesture and Monologic Discourse in Children

Susan Wagner Cook
10 Understanding How Gestures Are Produced and Perceived

Tilbe Göksun, Demet Özer, and Seda AkbIyık
11 Gesture in the Aging Brain

Part V: Gesture With More Than One Language

Elena Nicoladis and Lisa Smithson
12 Gesture in Bilingual Language Acquisition

Marianne Gullberg
13 Bimodal Convergence: How Languages Interact in Multicompetent Language Users’ Speech and Gestures

Gale Stam and Marion Tellier
14 Gesture Helps Second and Foreign Language Learning and Teaching

Aliyah Morgenstern and Susan Goldin-Meadow
Afterword: Gesture as Part of Language or Partner to Language Across the Lifespan

Index
About the Editors