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Article published In:
Gesture
Vol. 22:1 (2023) ► pp.62–93

Demographic, neuropsychological, and speech variables that impact iconic and supplementary-to-speech gesturing in aphasia

ORCID logo | Indiana University Bloomington
| Indiana University Bloomington

We model the role of demographic, neuropsychological and speech variables in characterizing iconic gesture use in speakers with aphasia, especially gestures that supplement speech and are essential for understanding the spoken message. Using backward regression modelling with cross validation in 37 speakers with aphasia, literature-derived demographic (e.g., age), neuropsychological (e.g., aphasia and anomia severity), and speech (e.g., speaking duration) variables were used to predict frequency and rate (per minute) of iconic, supplementary, and essential gesturing. We identified that nearly 60% of iconic gestures produced by speakers were supplementary to speech with 38% being essential for understanding the speech. Generally, those with more severe aphasia, anomia, and with nonfluent aphasia tended to produce fewer tokens and a slower rate of speech, and these were the speakers who produced more and a higher rate of supplementary and essential gestures. These findings underline the importance of iconic gestures to improve communication.

Keywords: gesture, aphasia, iconic, communication, language
Article outline
  • Introduction
    • The relationship of aphasia characteristics with iconic gesturing
    • The relationship of demographic and speech variables with iconic gesturing in aphasia
    • Study summary and hypotheses
      • H1: Neuropsychological variables, including aphasia type, severity, and anomia severity, will be related to iconic gesturing as well as supplementary and essential gesturing
      • H2: Speech variables, including sample length, will be related to iconic gesturing
      • H3: We will clarify the role of age and sex on iconic gesturing
  • Materials and methods
    • Participants and task
    • Gesture type, communicative function and iconicity
      • Type
      • Communicative function
    • Gesture annotation
      • Rater reliability
    • Gesture dependent variables
    • Neuropsychological variables
    • Speech variables
    • Demographic information
    • Analyses
    • Data availability
  • Results
    • Describing the sample of speakers
    • Rater agreement
      • Describing the dependent variables
    • Gesture frequency and proportions
      • Iconic gestures
      • Proportion of supplementary gestures
      • Proportion of essential gestures
    • Gesture rate per minute
      • Iconic
      • Supplementary
      • Essential
  • Discussion
    • H1: Neuropsychological variables will be related to iconic gesturing as well as supplementary and essential gesturing
    • H2: Speech variables will be related to iconic gesturing
    • H3: Explore the role of age and sex on iconic gesturing
  • Clinical implications
  • Limitations and future directions
  • Conclusions
  • Declaration of interest
  • References
Published online: 9 February 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.23019.sta
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