Learning to talk in a gesture-rich world: Early communication in Italian vs. American children

Italian children are immersed in a gesture-rich culture. Given the large
gesture repertoire of Italian adults, young Italian children might be
expected to develop a larger inventory of gestures than American children.
If so, do these gestures impact the course of language learning? We examined
gesture and speech production in Italian and US children between the
onset of first words and the onset of two-word combinations. We found
differences in the size of the gesture repertoires produced by the Italian vs.
the American children, differences that were inversely related to the size of
the children's spoken vocabularies. Despite these differences in gesture
vocabulary, in both cultures we found that gesturespeech combinations
reliably predicted the onset of two-word combinations, underscoring the
robustness of gesture as a harbinger of linguistic development.

Publication type: 
Articolo
Author or Creator: 
Iverson, J.
Capirci, O.
Volterra, V.
Goldin-Meadow, S.
Publisher: 
Alpha Academic,, Chalfont St Giles , Regno Unito
Source: 
First language 28(2) (2008): 164–181. doi:10.1177/0142723707087736
info:cnr-pdr/source/autori:Iverson, J.; Capirci, O.; Volterra, V.; Goldin-Meadow, S./titolo:Learning to talk in a gesture-rich world: Early communication in Italian vs. American children/doi:10.1177/0142723707087736/rivista:First language/anno:2008/pagina
Date: 
2008
Resource Identifier: 
http://www.cnr.it/prodotto/i/47017
https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0142723707087736
info:doi:10.1177/0142723707087736
http://fla.sagepub.com/content/28/2/164.full.pdf+html
Language: 
Eng
ISTC Author: 
Olga Capirci's picture
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