Young children's coordination of gestural and linguistic reference

The current study investigated the relationship between young children's linguistic and nonlinguistic communicative strategies. Twenty-three children, 20-44 months of age, served as subjects. In a naturalistic setting, an adult gave signs of noncomprehension (a contingent query) to each of the child's object references. The child's original linguistic reference and use of gestures were recorded and compared to his/her subsequent linguistic and gestural responses to the adult query. Results showed that the children used gestures more often with pronouns than with nouns: either to clarify a linguistic reference from the original utterance or to supplement a linguistic response to the adult query. This would imply that two- to three-year- old children are aware of the communicative principle that pronouns 'need' gestures more than nouns, and more generally, that they are capable of coordinating their linguistic and nonlinguistic communi cative strategies. © 1984, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.

Duke Scholars

Author Michael Tomasello Psychology & Neuroscience