Gestures: The Foundation for Words

You've heard of the milestones for sitting, crawling, walking and talking, but have you heard of milestones for gestures? This is an area of development that is commonly overlooked, but it represents a critical set of skills that form the foundation for spoken words. In fact, early gesture use predicts later language outcomes (Goldin-Meadow et al., 2003; Lüke et al., 2017; Rowe & Goldin-Meadow, 2009; Rowe et al., 2006)

Before toddlers can start using words, they need several foundational skills that help set the stage for talking. These include:

1. Joint attention: Your toddler learns how to attend to things in their environment with a communication partner (like you!)

2. Communicative intent: Your toddler learns that we can use gestures and words to communicate meaning about the things around us to others!

3. Imitation: Your toddler copies what others around them are doing. This includes imitating actions (e.g. waving), actions with objects (e.g. stirring with a spoon), imitating sounds and eventually imitating words!

Toddler showing flower

So how do gestures develop over time and what should you expect? The First Words Project is an initiative aimed at supporting the early language skills of young children. They suggest that toddlers should learn 16 gestures by 16 months ("16by16"). This means that starting at 9 months old, babies will learn two new gestures per month until they are 16 months old! Here is an idea of what types of gestures you might see over time (Keep in mind that this is a guide, not a rigid set of rules!):

If you're reading through this list and thinking 'oh no... my toddler doesn't do any of these' or 'oh no, my toddler is way behind', please do not panic. I share this information with you to provide you with ways that you can support your little one's early communication skills. There is no better time than right now to start! My late talker (who is a now almost 6-year old boy) was delayed in his use of gestures and ultimately delayed in his use of first words. When I started explicitly supporting him in using a variety of gestures, that is when his communication truly started to blossom. Some kids simply need more support and more repetition than others. And this is OK!

Here are some ways for you to support your child's development of gestures:

1. Imitate THEM. Show your child how to imitate by imitating them. In other words: Do what they are doing. Are they smacking a window nearby? Do the same thing! (avoiding damaging your windows of course)

2. Share in their interests in things and people in your environment. Communication is a function of social connection. When we connect with our little ones and share in their interests (by following their lead), this sets the stage for communication.

3. Dial down the pressure and dial up the fun. Do not force your child to produce gestures. Provide them with the option of using them by modeling them in a fun and low-pressure way!

For more information on the First Words Project and the 16by16 initiative, visit:

https://firstwordsproject.com/about-16by16/

References:

Goldin-Meadow, S., Butcher, C., & Kita, S. (2003). Pointing: Where language, culture, and cognition meet. Pointing toward two word speech in young children, 85-107.

Lüke, C., Ritterfeld, U., Grimminger, A., Liszkowski, U., & Rohlfing, K. J. (2017). Development of Pointing Gestures in Children With Typical and Delayed Language Acquisition. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 60(11), 3185–3197. https://doi.org/10.1044/2017_JSLHR-L-16-0129

Rowe, M. L., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2009). Early gesture selectively predicts later language learning. Developmental science, 12(1), 182–187. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00764.x

Rowe, M. L., Özçaliskan, S., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2006). The added value of gesture in predicting vocabulary growth. In Proceedings of the 30th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 501-512). Cascadilla Press.