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Gesture as a support for word learning: The case of under*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

KARLA K. MCGREGOR ,
KATHARINA J. ROHLFING ,
ALLISON BEAN  and
ELLEN MARSCHNER
KARLA K. MCGREGOR*
Affiliation:
The University of Iowa
KATHARINA J. ROHLFING
Affiliation:
Bielefeld University
ALLISON BEAN
Affiliation:
The University of Iowa
ELLEN MARSCHNER
Affiliation:
The University of Iowa
*
Address for correspondence: Karla K. McGregor, PhD, 121c Speech and Hearing Center, Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Forty children, aged 1 ; 8–2 ; 0, participated in one of three training conditions meant to enhance their comprehension of the spatial term under: the +Gesture group viewed a symbolic gesture for under during training; those in the +Photo group viewed a still photograph of objects in the under relationship; those in the Model Only group did not receive supplemental symbolic support. Children's knowledge of under was measured before, immediately after, and two to three days after training. A gesture advantage was revealed when the gains exhibited by the groups on untrained materials (but not trained materials) were compared at delayed post-test (but not immediate post-test). Gestured input promoted more robust knowledge of the meaning of under, knowledge that was less tied to contextual familiarity and more prone to consolidation. Gestured input likely reduced cognitive load while emphasizing both the location and the movement relevant to the meaning of under.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , September 2009 , pp. 807 - 828
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

[*]

This research was generously supported by grant NIH-NIDCD 2 R01 DC003698 awarded to the first author. We thank the children and parents who participated, Amanda Murphy, who assisted with scheduling, Jessica Werts, who assisted with data entry, and Nina Capone, who provided helpful comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript. Some of the data in this paper were presented at the 2006 and 2007 Symposium on Research in Childhood Language Disorders, Madison, WI, USA, by the first author and the third author, respectively.

References

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