At 10-12 Months, Pointing Gesture Handedness Predicts the Size of Receptive Vocabularies

"My baby is ready to learn"-The role of infant pointing in redirecting maternal responses to be more informative

Caregivers may perceive pointing as an indication of infants' readiness to learn, thereby increasing their tendency to label objects regardless of the infant's gesture type and context. This was investigated in this study by tracking 35 infants at home at the ages of 11 and 13 months and observing their interactions with their mothers during object manipulation. We focused on four types of communicative gestures: typical giving gestures, gestures contingent on exploration, gestures contingent on play, and pointing. We analyzed maternal response tendencies, including affirmation, naming, discourse, and pretense. The results revealed that when infants reached the age of 13 months, they tripled their pointing production; in turn, the maternal response changed entirely, with naming becoming the preferred response to all types of gestures. Furthermore, when infants were 13 months old and offered an object contingent on play acts, mothers increased their pretense acts sevenfold. Based on the most informative responses to infants among those examined, we argue that an increase in the number of pointing gestures may gradually be associated with the establishment of the maternal perception that an infant is ready to learn and a subsequent increase in naming and pretense production by the mother.

Infants' pointing at nine months is associated with maternal sensitivity but not vocabulary

Infants often start pointing toward the end of their first year of life. Pointing shows a strong link to language, perhaps because parents label what infants point to. In the present study, we tested whether 9-month-olds' pointing was related to parental sensitivity and concurrent and subsequent vocabulary scores. Observations were made of 88 9-month-old infants in free-play situations with their mothers. Less than half the infants produced at least one index-finger point. The mothers' reactions to their infants' behaviour were coded for sensitivity. The mothers of the infants who pointed were less directing and responded more contingently than the mothers of the infants who did not point. However, there was no difference in vocabulary scores of pointers and non-pointers, either concurrently or at 12 and 18 months of age. These results could mean that parents' reactions play an important role in shaping pointing to be communicative.

Encouraging pointing with the right hand, but not the left hand, gives right-handed 3-year-olds a linguistic advantage

Previous research has shown a strong positive association between right-handed gesturing and vocabulary development. However, the causal nature of this relationship remains unclear. In the current study, we tested whether gesturing with the right hand enhances linguistic processing in the left hemisphere, which is contralateral to the right hand. We manipulated the gesture hand children used in pointing tasks to test whether it would affect their performance. In either a linguistic task (verb learning) or a non-linguistic control task (memory), 131 typically developing right-handed 3-year-olds were encouraged to use either their right hand or left hand to respond. While encouraging children to use a specific hand to indicate their responses had no effect on memory performance, encouraging children to use the right hand to respond, compared to the left hand, significantly improved their verb learning performance. This study is the first to show that manipulating the hand with which children are encouraged to gesture gives them a linguistic advantage. Language lateralization in healthy right-handed children typically involves a dominant left hemisphere. Producing right-handed gestures may therefore lead to increased activation in the left hemisphere which may, in turn, facilitate forming and accessing lexical representations. It is important to note that this study manipulated gesture handedness among right-handers and does therefore not support the practice of encouraging children to become right-handed in manual activities. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Right-handed 3-year-olds were instructed to point to indicate their answers exclusively with their right or left hand in either a memory or verb learning task. Right-handed pointing was associated with improved verb generalization performance, but not improved memory performance. Thus, gesturing with the right hand, compared to the left hand, gives right-handed 3-year-olds an advantage in a linguistic but not a non-linguistic task. Right-handed pointing might lead to increased activation in the left hemisphere and facilitate forming and accessing lexical representations.

Hand Preference in Adults’ Referential Gestures during Storytelling: Testing for Effects of Bilingualism, Language Ability, Sex and Age

Previous studies have shown that gestures are mediated by the left hemisphere. The primary purpose of this study was to test whether most gestures are also asymmetrical, i.e., produced with the right hand. We also tested four predictors of the degree of right-hand gesture use: bilingualism, language ability, sex, and age. These factors have been related to differences in the degree of language lateralization. English monolinguals, French–English bilinguals, and French monolinguals watched a cartoon and told the story back. For the gestures they produced while speaking, we calculated the percentage produced with the right hand. As predicted, the majority of gestures were right-handed (60%). Bilingualism, language ability, and age were not significantly related to hand choice in either English or French. In English, males tended to produce more right-handed gestures than females. These results raise doubts as to whether hand preference in gestures reflects speech lateralization. We discuss possible alternative explanations for a right-hand preference.

Hand preference in referential gestures: Relationships to accessing words for speaking in monolingual and bilingual children

INTRODUCTION

Infants' right-hand preference for pointing is associated with higher vocabulary. It is not clear whether the link between right-hand preference for gesturing and language persists into the preschool years. The primary purpose of the present study was to test whether preschool children's hand preference for referential gestures was associated with their language abilities. Secondarily, we predicted that the children's right-hand preference would be negatively associated with their visuospatial abilities. We also predicted that monolingual children would show a strong right-hand preference while bilinguals might show a reduced right-hand preference.

METHODS

Monolingual and bilingual children between the ages of four and six years did a storytelling task. Their referential gestures were coded for hand use (right, left, both). We measured language skills (receptive vocabulary, semantic fluency).

RESULTS

We found no difference between bilinguals and monolinguals on hand preference. Semantic fluency was a positive predictor and vocabulary a negative predictor of right-hand preference. Children's visuospatial abilities were not a predictor of right-hand preference.

CONCLUSION

These results suggest that right-hand preference may help children select semantically appropriate words out of their existing vocabulary. In other words, this preference may be related to children's construction of the message that they would like to produce. The association between hand preference and language skills persists into the preschool years.

Nine-month old infants' hand preference shows no link to concurrent or later vocabulary

Previous studies have shown a link between language abilities and right hand preference (RHP) for both object manipulation and pointing between 10 and 18 months of age. For infants, RHP can still be unstable. The purpose of the present study was to test whether the link between vocabulary and RHP exists among 9-month-old infants. The study included 88 infants who were observed in videotaped free-play interactions with their mothers at 9 months of age. The infants' hand preference was coded for touching objects and pointing. The children's vocabulary was measured at 9, 12, and 18 months of age. The results showed a small and significant RHP for touching objects and no significant RHP for pointing. The degree of RHP was not correlated with vocabulary scores at any age. One interpretation of these results is that, for the infants in this study, the lateralization for motor abilities was still stabilizing and therefore showed no relationship with their vocabulary. If so, this result is consistent with the argument that language lateralization builds on the lateralization for skilled and/or communicative movement.

Which hand knows the "right" word? What hand selection reveals about vocabulary in pre-and school-aged children

Research has shown that infants with increased right-hand selection for their first gestures perform better at an array of language tasks when they are tested later as toddlers. There is a smaller body of literature which focuses on preschoolers and how their right-handed movements relate to their speech and vocabulary development. Some research has established a connection between right-hand preference for grasping and speech production ability in preschool children, but the link to gestures is relatively unexplored in this age group. We investigated if lateralized gestures (pointing) are related to measures of language development (vocabulary) in a preschool-age sample. Specifically, typically developing children (aged 3-6) completed the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) to assess receptive language. We recorded their hand preference for pointing during the PPVT and the incidence of mistakes (pointing to the wrong picture). Despite the length of the test, children were more likely to select a correct response with their right hand. This result suggests a relationship between lateralized communicative gestures (pointing) and receptive language. This study provides evidence for an intimate relationship between right-handed manual movement and language development. Implications of this finding include developing simple fine-motor tasks to detect and/or ameliorate delayed language development.

Measuring infant handedness reliably from reaching: A systematic review

Researchers have utilized reaching paradigms to measure infant handedness for more than a century. However, methods vary widely. Recent research has identified that the number of trials used in assessment is critical with the recommendation that at least 15 trials are necessary to reliably classify infants into handedness categories via statistical cutoffs. As a first step towards establishing best practices for the field, we identified, categorized, and synthesized findings according to trial number from studies that utilized reaching to index handedness in infants across the first two years of life using PRISMA guidelines. Database searches were conducted in PsycINFO, PubMed, and Ovid MEDLINE®. All articles published through May 2018 were included. Additional records were identified through other sources. After removing duplicates, 1,116 records were screened using the online software program Abstrackr. Of these records, 125 full-text articles were further assessed for eligibility, and 87 articles were included in the qualitative synthesis. Results revealed that the majority of papers published since 1890 (70%) do not meet the 15-trial minimum criterion for statistically reliable measurement of infant handedness. Broad themes from articles meeting the measurement criterion and implications for future research are discussed.

Preverbal children as co-researchers: Exploring subjectivity in everyday living

This article theoretically refines the rendering of a conceptual framework suitable for including preverbal subjects, i.e., infants, in research. It is argued that the theoretical framework “psychology from the standpoint of the subject” is useful, as its conceptualization of the human–world relationship is a dialectical one that emphasizes how children are active subjects in their own lives. Nevertheless, key concepts such as subjective reasons for action and first-person perspective, do not sufficiently encompass bodily and emotional activity. The article discusses the framework’s inadequacies and, by extension, proposes the notion of Befindlichkeit, a German word translated here as embodied orientation, as a key concept that allows the inclusion of infants and toddlers as co-researchers. Befindlichkeit contributes to the analysis of the human–world relationship by situating bodily and emotional activities in processes of orientating in social practice.

Pointing perception is precise

The spontaneity and ease with which we point understates the gesture's significance to understanding cognition. Onset of pointing in infancy predicts early word acquisition and signals a capacity for shared intentionality. Yet, notwithstanding its importance, there is little research on the perception of pointing and its referents. Here we show that perceptual acuity for discerning where another person is pointing is remarkably accurate. Thresholds, as low as 0.5° of visual angle across an interpersonal distance of ∼2 m, are modulated by the referent's location in space and the hand used to point and remain constant when the pointer's eyes are occluded from view and when 'embodiment' cues are enhanced or minimized. Pointing with the index finger not only directs attention toward a general region of space but the morphology of arm, hand and finger can be used to discern the location of the pointer's attention with precision.