Gestures may help predict language delays in kids--study

According to experts, a strong relationship exists between gestures and language development.

They theorize kids with brain damage may use gesticulation to signal the need for assistance in developing language and those using fewer gestures are inclined to develop spoken vocabulary more slowly.

Susan Levine, the Stella M. Rowley Professor in Psychology at the University of Chicago, one of the authors of the study declared, “Gesture may be a promising diagnostic tool for identifying those children with pre or perinatal brain lesions whose language delays are likely to persist at a time when they are saying very little.

“Early identification may be useful because intervention early in development may be critical to successful remediation of language delay.”

Relationship between gesture and language development examined
In a bid to understand the link between language delays and early gestures, the researchers tracked 11 children from age 18 months to 30 months.

All the children had suffered brain injuries prenatally or during birth.

The investigators then made comparisons to the language development in 53 children without any damage to the brain tissue.

As a part of the study, the kids were closely monitored in their homes thrice annually for 90 minutes while they interacted with family members in daily routine activities. The interactions, gestures and their speech were all recorded on tape.

Observations by researchers
The researchers noted that though on the whole the children with lesions produced as many gestures as the kids without injuries “there was a great deal of variability within the group of children with pre– and perinatal brain lesions.”

Eight of the 11 children with brain lesions whose gesture was within the range of the typically developing kids exhibited a vocabulary development below the 25th percentile at 18 months.

In contrast, five of the kids who were found to be using fewer gestures had delayed language development even four months later.

Susan Goldin–Meadow, the Beardsley Ruml Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology and an expert on gesture stated, “The striking result of our study is that these five children with language delays were the same five who were low gesture producers at 18 months.”

She added, “Thus early gesture may provide clinicians with a way to identify children who may end up having persistent language difficulties, even before those difficulties appear in the children’s speech.

“Our results also raise the possibility that encouraging children with brain lesions to gesture may prove an effective intervention to prevent language delay.”

The paper, “Early Gesture Predicts Language Delay in Children with Pre– or Perinatal Brain Lesions,” is published in the March issue of the journal Child Development.