Gesture and word production in children with down syndrome

Abstract

In this descriptive, longitudinal study, the role of gestures in the emergent language of three children with Down syndrome who were at the protoimperative and protodeclarative stages of language development was investigated. Specifically, the gestures produced by these children before and during the emergence of word production and the functions they served were explored. The children's gestures were sampled during structured activities and mother-child interactions over a period of 5 months. The results indicated that different types of gestures serving various communicative functions were produced during structured and mother-child interactions. The most frequent gesture types were conventional, deictic, and enactive naming. The most frequent functions were comments, acknowledgments, and requests. The findings of the present study were congruent with previous research with both nondisabled populations and children with Down syndrome in demonstrating how gestural production may signal the emergence of language in both groups.

• Down syndrome
• emergent language
• gesture
• word production