Gesture in Varying Environments:Its Role in Revealing Child Abilities and Influen

从语言学习的最早阶段开始，孩子们说话时就会打手势。在成年人中，手势是 与它所伴随的语言结合在一起，经常传达与之相关但不完全相同的信息 那次演讲所传达的信息。因此，手势可以扩大说话人的交流范围。 项目II建立在之前收集的60名14个月上学儿童的纵向观察的基础上 他们的家庭被选为代表芝加哥人口统计范围的代表。该项目观察到 这些孩子的手势将被跟踪，直到他们10岁。除了提供 脑损伤儿童的标准化手势数据在项目III中，项目II有三个具体目标。 (1)考虑到手势可以作为一个窗口，区别于言语，进入孩子的交际 在语言学习的早期阶段，第一个目标是描述手势的使用方式 在语言学习的后期阶段，孩子们开始上学。研究1问手势是否继续 在晚年扩展儿童的交流能力，提供了更复杂的第一个迹象 句法结构和新的话语手段。(2)考虑到儿童使用方式的个体差异 在语言学习的早期阶段，手势的第二个目标是探索这些 差异预示着以后的语言使用。研究2问手势是否不仅为语言学习打开了大门 而且还设定了学习的轨迹。(3)第三个目的是探讨手势是否具有因果关系 在语言学习中的作用。研究3对另外144名1词说话者进行了手势实验 并观察了这种操作对他们词汇的影响以及他们向两个单词语音的过渡。 虽然大多数儿童成功地获得了他们所接触到的语言，但也有一些孩子 掌握得比别人晚。每个里程碑的时间可能对其最终的影响很重要 语言习得的结果，以及它对其他认知技能的影响。项目II探索 手势是否也不同，如果是的话，这种可变性如何与后来语言学习中的可变性有关。 鉴于家庭使用手势的频率存在个体差异，使用手势就变得很重要 以确定手势是否在语言学习中发挥作用。如果是这样的话，教育工作者需要意识到 孩子们在非语言领域展示的技能，并学习使用它们来提高语言技能。

From the very earliest stages of language learning, children gesture as they talk. In adults, gesture is integrated with the speech it accompanies, often conveying information that is related, but not identical, to the information conveyed in that speech. Gesture can thus expand a speaker's communicative range. Project II builds on previously collected longitudinal obervations of 60 children, ages 14 months to school entry, whose families were chosen to represent the demographic range of Chicago. The project observes gesture in these children who will be followed as they enter school until age 10. In addition to providing normative gesture data for the brain injured children in Project III, Project II has three specific aims. (1) Given that gesture can serve as a window that is distinct from speech into the child's communicative abilities during the early stages of language-learning, the first aim is to characterize the way gesture is used in later stages of language-learning as children begin school. Study 1 asks whether gesture continues to expand the children's communicative repertoires in the later years, providing the first sign of more complex syntactic constructions and new discourse devices. (2) Given individual differences in how children use gesture during the early stages of language-learning, the second aim is to explore whether those differences predict later language use. Study 2 asks whether gesture not only opens the door for languagelearning but also sets the learning trajectory. (3) The third aim is to explore whether gesture plays a causal role in language-learning. Study 3 experimentally manipulates gesture in 144 additional 1-word speakers and observes the effect of this manipulation on their vocabulary and their transition to 2-word speech. While most children successfully acquire the language to which they are exposed, some achieve mastery later than others. The timing of each milestone may be important for its effect on the eventual outcome of language acquisition, as well as for its impact on other cognitive skills. Project II explores whether gesturing also varies, and, if so, how that variability is related to variability in later languagelearning. Given that there are individual differences in how often families use gesture, it becomes important to determine whether gesture plays a role in language-learning. If so, educators need to become aware of the skills children display in the nonverbal realm, and learn to use them to improve verbal skills.