This study explored the relation between parents’ production of gestures and symbolic play during free play and children’s production and comprehension of symbolic gestures. Thirty-one 16- to 22-month-olds and their parents participated in a free play session. Children also participated in a forced-choice novel gesture-learning task. Parents’ pretend play with objects in hand was predictive of children’s gesture production during play and gesture vocabulary according to parental report. No relationship was found between parent gesture and child performance on the forced-choice gesture-learning task, although children’s performance was negatively correlated with their verbal vocabulary size. These data suggest a strong link between parental input and the children’s use of gestures as symbols, although not a direct link from parent gesture to child gesture. The data also suggest that children’s overall expectations that gestures can be symbols is unaffected by parental input, and highlight the possibility that children play a role in transforming the symbolic play behaviors that they observe into communicative signals.
Hall, Suzanne, Lisa Rumney, Judith Holler & Evan Kidd
2013. Associations among play, gesture and early spoken language acquisition. First Language 33:3 ► pp. 294 ff.
Lee, Jiyoung & Jihyun Sung
2015. The Roles of Maternal Responsiveness in the Relationship between Infants’ Communicative Gestures and Play. Korean Journal of Child Studies 36:5 ► pp. 19 ff.
Lima, Etelvina & Anabela Cruz-Santos
2017. Gesto e intencionalidade comunicativa em crianças dos 8 aos 18 meses. Revista de Estudios e Investigación en Psicología y Educación► pp. 54 ff.
Longobardi, Emiddia, Clelia Rossi-Arnaud & Pietro Spataro
2012. Individual differences in the prevalence of words and gestures in the second year of life: Developmental trends in Italian children. Infant Behavior and Development 35:4 ► pp. 847 ff.
Mortlock, Anita
2015. Toddlers' use of peer rituals at mealtime: symbols of togetherness and otherness. International Journal of Early Years Education 23:4 ► pp. 426 ff.
Novack, Miriam A., Annette M. E. Henderson & Amanda L. Woodward
2014. Twelve-Month-Old Infants Generalize Novel Signed Labels, but Not Preferences Across Individuals. Journal of Cognition and Development 15:4 ► pp. 539 ff.
Pınar, Ebru, Sumeyra Ozturk, F. Nihan Ketrez & Şeyda Özçalışkan
2021. Parental Speech and Gesture Input to Girls Versus Boys in Singletons and Twins. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 45:2 ► pp. 297 ff.
Quinn, Sara & Evan Kidd
2019. Symbolic play promotes non‐verbal communicative exchange in infant–caregiver dyads. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 37:1 ► pp. 33 ff.
Suanda, Sumarga H. & Laura L. Namy
2013. The Organization of Words and Symbolic Gestures in 18‐Month‐Olds’ Lexicons: Evidence From a Disambiguation Task. Infancy 18:2 ► pp. 276 ff.
Vallotton, Claire D.
2012. Infant signs as intervention? Promoting symbolic gestures for preverbal children in low-income families supports responsive parent–child relationships. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 27:3 ► pp. 401 ff.
Vasc, Dermina & Mircea Miclea
2018. Age-related changes in preschoolers’ ability to communicate using iconic gestures in the absence of speech. Early Child Development and Care 188:1 ► pp. 16 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 30 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
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