What are gestures?
Gesture is defined as an action or movement of the body with an intention to communicate an idea or meaning. Since it does not involve words, it is a non-verbal form of communication. Long before a child utters his first word, he would have been waving, reaching and pointing.
A lack of gestures is usually an indication of a larger developmental issue. To understand why this is so, we first need to understand communication. For communication to happen, a person first need to have a social intent and an idea plus the means to communicate the idea.
Non-verbal communication is one of the earliest way in which we can tell if the social intent or idea is missing. That’s why for speech therapists, we don’t always start with talking. Rather, we would look at whether the earlier skills are in place before we move higher up the chain.
Some parents may worry, won’t teaching my child gestures prevent him from talking? However, this cannot be further from the truth. In fact, gestures lay the foundation for a child to talk. As they develop, children often start to pair spoken words with their actions.
I like the analogy that Laura Mize used. “Does learning how to crawl prevents your child from walking?” Of course not. Just like how crawling needs to happen before a child can walk, learning to use gestures must happen before a child can learn to talk.
Why are gestures important?
Gestures are positively correlated with vocabulary skills
Gestures are predictive of a child’s vocabulary skills at 24months of age. The researchers found that a child is more likely to learn the word when they engage in pointing or showing an object.
This is likely because adults tend to respond to a child’s pointing or showing by supplying the label for an object. Doing so repeatedly allows the child to link the label to the object and then to subsequently use it.
Gestures are an indicator of joint attention
Joint attention takes place when a child and adult focus their attention on the same object of interest. Gestures are one of the child’s earliest bid for joint attention, and it reveals a child’s desire to communicate with another. A lack of communicative intent has ramifications for the development of language and speech since both stem from the child’s wish to communicate.
AACs are an extension of Gestures
Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices is a broad term that includes the various modes of communication to support or replace speech or writing. They are mainly use with people who have impairments in the production or comprehension of spoken or written language.
AAC may include the using of picture cards or electronic devices to exchange messages. Since gestures are essentially the exchange of ideas through actions instead of speech, a deficit in this area will likely have an impact on a child’s uptake of AAC as a mode of communication.
Children learn to combine gestures before words
Two-word combinations involve the joining of two different concept. Since gestures precede speech, it makes sense that children begin to join two ideas using actions before they can do so using speech.
As they develop, they begin to combine speech with gestures. These speech + gesture combination are in turn predictive of the onset of 2-word combinations.
As you can see, speech is built on the foundation of non-verbal communication. Thus if you want to help your child to develop speech, you first need to work on gestures. Not only does it help promote speech and language, it also provides an alternative form of communication for your child while he is learning to talk.
A child who communicates is one who has less frustrations. This makes life easier not only for him but for you and your family as well.
Milestones for gesture development
9-12months
Children start to develop deictic gestures which serves the purpose of drawing a partner’s attention to a focus of interest. These may include requesting, where the child try to fulfil his needs by reaching his arm toward an item, place or person. For emphasis, they may also open and close their fists.
Other types of gestures are showing, where a child hold up an item with a look on their faces that says “ta-da!” or to say “Look at that!”.
In addition, children may also give an object by passing the object to someone else. Lastly, a child at this age has also started pointing. She may point with her hand or index finger at an object, place, person or event. This type of gesture may serve an epistemic function as the child may be pointing to ask an adult “What’s that?”
12-14months
Children start to produce more meaningful types of gestures like bringing their hands to their mouth to gesture ‘eat’, or pretending to talk on a toy telephone. These forms of gestures are referred to as iconic gestures.
The first gestures and words tend to develop around daily routines like feeding, and changing. As the child develop, their gestures gradually become less dependant on context. As a result, their repertoire may expand to include a wider range of objects or events.
From 18months
Children starts to combine gestures with words at around 18months. Initially, they may point to a ball and say “ball”. As they develop, they start to combine a gesture with a verbal word for something different. For example, a child may say “eat” while pointing to a cookie. When this happens, it means that a child is ready to start combining words.
How to help children develop gestures?
You can teach gestures at anytime and any place. So try to incorporate it naturally into your daily activities. Another thing to note is to always try to match the gesture with the word that it is standing for. Over time, your child will not only learn the action but the word as well.
Sing Songs with Actions
Songs are a fun and engaging way for your child to learn about gestures. Sing songs with actions like “Itsy, bitsy, spider”, “The wheels on the bus”, and “Snow Flakes”. These songs not only teach your child new gestures but also concepts like round and round, falling, or going up and down.
Model gestures in your every day life
Raise your arms up as you ask your child “up up?”. Model an exaggerated head shaking when saying “No” if your child is refusing. Wave as your say “Bye bye” when someone is leaving. Whenever you can, see if you can accompany your words with an action. This helps your child to learn the meaning of these actions and words.
Use pointing whenever you can
Point out interesting objects in your surrounding. Point with your finger when looking at books. Help your child to point to show you which of two object he wants. Doing so teaches him the meaning of pointing and gives him a chance to practice doing so.
Conclusion
The importance of gestures is often overlooked by parents and even some clinicians. However, they are critically important in a child’s development. Thankfully, there are many ways to work on this skill. With hard work, your child will eventually gain mastery over this non-verbal communication.
What other ways have you found to work for teaching gestures? Share them below!
