Maternal label and gesture use affects acquisition of specific object names

Zammit, M. and Schafer, G. (2011) Maternal label and gesture use affects acquisition of specific object names. Journal of Child Language, 38 (1). pp. 201-221. ISSN 0305-0009 doi: 10.1017/S0305000909990328

Abstract/Summary

Ten mothers were observed prospectively, interacting with their infants aged 0 ; 10 in two contexts (picture description and noun description). Maternal communicative behaviours were coded for volubility, gestural production and labelling style. Verbal labelling events were categorized into three exclusive categories: label only; label plus deictic gesture; label plus iconic gesture. We evaluated the predictive relations between maternal communicative style and children's subsequent acquisition of ten target nouns. Strong relations were observed between maternal communicative style and children's acquisition of the target nouns. Further, even controlling for maternal volubility and maternal labelling, maternal use of iconic gestures predicted the timing of acquisition of nouns in comprehension. These results support the proposition that maternal gestural input facilitates linguistic development, and suggest that such facilitation may be a function of gesture type.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/5735
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Development Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Psychology
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
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