The Development of the Ability to Semantically Integrate Information in Speech and Iconic Gesture in Comprehension.

We examined whether children's ability to integrate speech and gesture follows the pattern of a broader developmental shift between 3- and 5-year-old children (Ramscar & Gitcho, 2007) regarding the ability to process two pieces of information simultaneously. In Experiment 1, 3-year-olds, 5-year-olds, and adults were presented with either an iconic gesture or a spoken sentence or a combination of the two on a computer screen, and they were instructed to select a photograph that best matched the message. The 3-year-olds did not integrate information in speech and gesture, but 5-year-olds and adults did. In Experiment 2, 3-year-old children were presented with the same speech and gesture as in Experiment 1 that were produced live by an experimenter. When presented live, 3-year-olds could integrate speech and gesture. We concluded that development of the integration ability is a part of the broader developmental shift; however, live-presentation facilitates the nascent integration ability in 3-year-olds.

The development of co-speech gesture in the communication of children with autism spectrum disorders.

Co-speech gestures have a close semantic relationship to speech in adult conversation. In typically developing children co-speech gestures which give additional information to speech facilitate the emergence of multi-word speech. A difficulty with integrating audio-visual information is known to exist for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), which may affect development of the speech-gesture system. A longitudinal observational study was conducted with four children with ASD, aged 2;4 to 3;5 years. Participants were video-recorded for 20 min every 2 weeks during their attendance on an intervention programme. Recording continued for up to 8 months, thus affording a rich analysis of gestural practices from pre-verbal to multi-word speech across the group. All participants combined gesture with either speech or vocalisations. Co-speech gestures providing additional information to speech were observed to be either absent or rare. Findings suggest that children with ASD do not make use of the facilitating communicative effects of gesture in the same way as typically developing children.

Idiosyncratic gesture use in atypical language development, and its interaction with speech rhythm, word juncture, syntax, pragmatics and discourse: a case study.

Very little is known about the use of gesture by children with developmental language disorders (DLDs). This case study of 'Lucy', a child aged 4;10 with a DLD, expands on what is known and in particular focuses on a type of idiosyncratic "rhythmic gesture" (RG) not previously reported. A fine-grained qualitative analysis was carried out of video recordings of Lucy in conversation with the first author. This revealed that Lucy's RG was closely integrated in complex ways with her use of other gesture types, speech rhythm, word juncture, syntax, pragmatics, discourse, visual processing and processing demands generally. Indeed, the only satisfactory way to explain it was as a partial byproduct of such interactions. These findings support the theoretical accounts of gesture which see it as just one component of a multimodal, integrated signalling system (e.g. Goldin-Meadow, S. (2000). Beyond words: The importance of gesture to researchers and learners. Child Development, 71(1), 231-239), and emergentist accounts of communication impairment which regard compensatory adaptation as integral (e.g. Perkins, M. R. (2007). Pragmatic Impairment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.).

The co-development of speech and gesture in children with autism.

Recent interest in gesture has led to an understanding of the development of gesture and speech in typically developing young children. Research suggests that initially gesture and speech form two independent systems which combine together temporally and semantically before children enter the two-word period of language development. However, little is known about gesture development in children's disordered speech. This paper presents two case studies of young children with autism. The children are under 3 years of age and attend an intervention programme to facilitate their social and communication development. Early indications suggest that whilst both gesture and speech development is delayed in children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD), the developmental trajectory is the same as for typically developing children.