Gestures, grunts, and words: Development in a dynamic system

Abstract

Pointing has long been considered influential in language acquisition. Certain pre-linguistic vocal expressions may hold even greater value in addressing the transition to language. The goal of the present study is longitudinal evaluation of early communicative development, addressing the influence of pre-linguistic gestures and vocal expressions. This multiple case study report analyzes longitudinal development in five children from 9 to 16 months of age, a critical language transition period. We include gestures of pointing and extending the hand, with interactive as well as request functions. Gestures, communicative grunts, words, and multimodal events combining gesture with vocal accompaniment comprise the data. Results demonstrate group trends and stark individual differences in children’s use of vocal and gestural modalities, and the influence of grunt communication onset on overall communicative frequency in single and combined communicative events. We imbed this analysis within the broader context of mutually interacting variables in a dynamic system. These results argue for greater attention to vocalization as well as gesture in monitoring children’s approach to language development. Based on the role of communicative grunts demonstrated here, this variable should be further studied in both typical and language-delayed children.