Co-Speech Gesture Input as a Support for Language Learning in Children With and Without Early Language Delay

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Capone Singleton ◽  
Jessica Saks
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Language Delay ◽  
Language Therapy ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Early Language Delay ◽  
Language Environment ◽  
Gesture Input

The current paper provides empirical support for adults using co-speech gesturing with children with and without early language delay. The discussion starts broad by showing that co-speech gestures are already in the child's language environment. We then show that encouraging co-speech gesturing by adults promotes language development and use in children. The discussion is then narrowed to the review of the finer aspects of word learning which sets the stage for how iconic gestures can be utilized in language therapy. Finally, we show that pairing iconic gestures with word models promotes word learning.

scholarly journals What Our Hands Say: Exploring Gesture Use in Subgroups of Children With Language Delay

2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 1319-1325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilary O'Neill ◽  
Shula Chiat
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Expressive Language ◽  
Receptive Language ◽  
Language Delay ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Study Support ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
Early Language Delay ◽  
Symbolic Understanding ◽  
Expressive Language Delay

Purpose The aim of this study was to investigate whether children with receptive-expressive language delay (R/ELD) and expressive-only language delay (ELD) differ in their use of gesture; to examine relationships between their use of gesture, symbolic comprehension, and language; to consider implications for assessment and for the nature of problems underlying different profiles of early language delay. Method Twelve children with ELD (8 boys, 4 girls) and 10 children with R/ELD (8 boys, 2 girls), aged 2–3 years, were assessed on measures of gesture use and symbolic comprehension. Results Performance of the R/ELD group was significantly poorer than performance of the ELD group on measures of gesture and symbolic comprehension. Gesture use and symbolic comprehension were significantly associated with receptive language, but associations with expressive language were not significant. Conclusions Findings of this study support previous research pointing to links between gesture and language development, and more specifically, between delays in gesture, symbolic understanding, and receptive rather than expressive language. Given potentially important implications for the nature of problems underlying ELD and R/ELD, and for assessment of children with language delay, this preliminary study invites further investigation comparing the use of different gesture types in samples of children matched on age and nonverbal IQ.

Communicative initiations in normal and late-talking toddlers

1991 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhea Paul ◽  
Mary E. Shiffer
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Expressive Language ◽  
Normal Group ◽  
Language Delay ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Late Talkers ◽  
Predominant Form ◽  
Normal Language ◽  
Early Language Delay ◽  
The Difference

ABSTRACTInitiation of communication in videotaped, unstructured mother–child interactions was examined in two groups of 2-year-olds: those with normal language development and those with late acquisition of expressive language. Results revealed that the late-talkers (LTs) expressed significantly fewer intentions, but that the difference between the two groups could be accounted for entirely by the difference in one type of intention: the expression of joint attentional intentions. Investigation of the forms of expression of intentions showed that the normal group used significantly more verbal forms of expression, as expected. The predominant form for the normal group was word combinations, while the predominant form for the LTs was vocalization. The implications of these results for understanding the mechanisms involved in early language delay are discussed.

scholarly journals Variations in the Home Language Environment and Early Language Development in Rural China

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 2671
Author(s):  
Yue Ma ◽  
Laura Jonsson ◽  
Tianli Feng ◽  
Tyler Weisberg ◽  
Teresa Shao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Child Language ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Early Language Development ◽  
Language Environment ◽  
Conversational Turns ◽  
Home Language Environment

The home language environment is critical to early language development and subsequent skills. However, few studies have quantitatively measured the home language environment in low-income, developing settings. This study explores variations in the home language environment and child language skills among households in poor rural villages in northwestern China. Audio recordings were collected for 38 children aged 20–28 months and analyzed using Language Environment Analysis (LENA) software; language skills were measured using the MacArthur–Bates Mandarin Communicative Developmental Inventories expressive vocabulary scale. The results revealed large variability in both child language skills and home language environment measures (adult words, conversational turns, and child vocalizations) with 5- to 6-fold differences between the highest and lowest scores. Despite variation, however, the average number of adult words and conversational turns were lower than found among urban Chinese children. Correlation analyses did not identify significant correlations between demographic characteristics and the home language environment. However, the results do indicate significant correlations between the home language environment and child language skills, with conversational turns showing the strongest correlation. The results point to a need for further research on language engagement and ways to increase parent–child interactions to improve early language development among young children in rural China.

Early Language Delay and Risk for Language Impairment

2008 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 93-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica M. Ellis ◽  
Donna J. Thal
Keyword(s):  
Language Impairment ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Language Delay ◽  
Clinical Implications ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Late Talkers ◽  
Late Talker ◽  
Early Language Delay ◽  
Clinically Significant ◽  
Normal Variability

Abstract Clinicians are often faced with the difficult task of deciding whether a late talker shows normal variability or has a clinically significant language disorder. This article provides an overview of research investigating identification, characteristics, outcomes, and predictors of late talkers. Clinical implications for speech-language pathologists in the identification and treatment of children who are late talkers are discussed.

Outcomes of Early Language Delay

2003 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 544-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip S. Dale ◽  
Thomas S. Price ◽  
Dorothy V. M. Bishop ◽  
Robert Plomin
Keyword(s):  
Parental Education ◽  
Language Delay ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Language Difficulties ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ear Infections ◽  
Nonverbal Ability ◽  
Early Language Delay ◽  
Twin Children ◽  
Language Measures

Parent-based assessments of vocabulary, grammar, nonverbal ability, and use of language to refer to past and future (displaced reference) were obtained for 8,386 twin children at 2 years of age. Children with 2 year vocabulary scores below the 10th centile were designated the early language delay (ELD) group, and their outcomes at 3 and 4 years were contrasted with the remainder of the sample, the typical language (TL) group. At 3 and 4 years old, children were designated as language impaired if their scores fell below the 15th centile on at least 2 of the 3 parent-provided language measures: vocabulary, grammar, and use of abstract language. At 3 years, 44.1% of the ELD group (as compared to 7.2% of the TL group) met criteria for persistent language difficulties, decreasing slightly to 40.2% at 4 years (as compared to 8.5% of the TL group), consistent with previous reports of frequent spontaneous resolution of delayed language in preschoolers. Although relations between language and nonverbal abilities at 2 years and outcome at 3 and 4 years within the ELD group were highly statistically significant, effect sizes were small, and classification of outcome on the basis of data on 2-year-olds was far too inaccurate to be clinically useful. Children whose language difficulties persisted were not necessarily those with the most severe initial difficulties. Furthermore, measures of parental education and the child's history of ear infections failed to substantially improve the prediction.

scholarly journals TM4SF20 Ancestral Deletion and Susceptibility to a Pediatric Disorder of Early Language Delay and Cerebral White Matter Hyperintensities

2013 ◽  
Vol 93 (2) ◽  
pp. 405
Author(s):  
Wojciech Wiszniewski ◽  
Jill V. Hunter ◽  
Neil A. Hanchard ◽  
Jason R. Willer ◽  
Chad Shaw ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
White Matter ◽  
White Matter Hyperintensities ◽  
Language Delay ◽  
Cerebral White Matter ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Early Language Delay

Responding to Joint Attention and Language Development

2002 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 715-719 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine E. F. Delgado ◽  
Peter Mundy ◽  
Mary Crowson ◽  
Jessica Markus ◽  
Marygrace Yale ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Field ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Joint Attention ◽  
Developmental Delays ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Attention Regulation ◽  
Developmental Progression ◽  
Unique Predictor

This study examined the importance of target location (within vs. outside the visual field) on the relation between responding to joint attention and subsequent language development in 47 normally developing infants. The results supported a developmental progression in the infants' ability to locate targets from within to outside the visual field. In addition, individual differences in 15-month-old infants' ability to correctly locate targets outside the visual field was a unique predictor of expressive language at 24 months. Infants' ability to locate targets outside the visual field may demonstrate increasing capacities for attention regulation, representational thinking, and social cognition that may facilitate language learning. The implications of this study are discussed with regard to the usefulness of measures of responding to joint attention for identifying early language and developmental delays.

scholarly journals Narrowing Care Gaps for Early Language Delay

2015 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney M. Brown ◽  
Andrew F. Beck ◽  
Wendy Steuerwald ◽  
Elizabeth Alexander ◽  
Zeina M. Samaan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Delay ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Care Gaps ◽  
Early Language Delay

scholarly journals The gesture–language association over time in toddlers with and without language delays

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 239694151984554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacy S Manwaring ◽  
Lauren Swineford ◽  
Danielle L Mead ◽  
Chih-Ching Yeh ◽  
Yue Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Language Delay ◽  
Language Delays ◽  
Typical Development ◽  
Developmental Profile ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Child Interaction ◽  
Early Language Delay

Background and aims Young children with language delays or other factors that heighten risk for autism spectrum disorder often show reduced gesture use. In particular, deictic gestures such as pointing and showing are reported to be deficient in young children with autism spectrum disorder, and their use has been found to predict expressive vocabulary development. The first aim of this study was to examine the production of two types of gestures (deictic and conventional) for two communicative functions (behavior regulation and joint attention) across two observational contexts in a sample of 18-month-old toddlers with significant language delays compared to typical controls. The second aim was to examine if and how gesture use (type and communicative function) at 18 months is associated with later receptive and expressive language. Methods Toddlers with significant language delays ( n = 30) or typical development ( n = 62) were drawn from longitudinal studies of early language delay as a risk factor for autism spectrum disorder. Toddlers identified with early language delay were classified based on a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder ( n = 12) or non-autism spectrum disorder ( n = 18) after an evaluation at 36 months. Gestures were coded from video recordings of the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales Developmental Profile–Behavior Sample and a naturalistic parent–child interaction obtained at 18 months. Language outcomes included receptive and expressive age equivalents from the Mullen Scales of Early Learning and the number of words produced on the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories. Results At 18 months, toddlers with language delay showed reduced deictic and conventional gesture use in both the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales Developmental Profile–Behavior Sample and parent–child interaction compared to toddlers with typical development. Within the language delay group, toddlers with an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis at outcome also produced significantly fewer deictic gestures than those without an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis across both communicative functions and observational contexts. While all groups of toddlers gestured more in the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales Developmental Profile–Behavior Sample, the mean difference in gesture use between the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales Developmental Profile–Behavior Sample and parent–child interaction was significantly larger in toddlers with typical development than language delay for deictic gestures, as compared to the difference between the two contexts for conventional gestures. In the combined sample, a significant association was found between deictic gestures used in the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales Developmental Profile–Behavior Sample and change in the number of words produced from 18 to 36 months, accounting for significant demographic and developmental confounders. Conclusions Findings show that early language delay is associated with reduced deictic and conventional gestures across observational contexts. Importantly, deictic gesture use, but not conventional, was associated with the development of expressive language in toddlers with and without language delays. Implications Deictic gestures play an important role in the development of expressive language in toddlers, including those with language delays. Assessment of young children with language delays should include evaluation of types of gestures used and communicative function of gestures, with assessments utilizing communicative temptations yielding higher rates of gesture production. Directly targeting both gesture type and function in early intervention may be important in facilitating the development of language.

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