Poster #33 - Parallels in gesture recognition and language skills in monolingual and bilingual preschoolers

• In Event: Poster Session 11

Abstract

Gesture skills are not only a precursor of verbal language, but also a predictor of it (Ramos-Cabo et al., 2019). This is well established for very young monolingual children (Rowe et al., 2008), but less data is available concerning children growing up with more than one language. Some studies show that bilingual children produce more of such non-verbal cues than monolinguals (e.g. Nicoladis et al., 2009). However, little is known about the importance of gesture comprehension for language development in these children.
With the aim of studying the relationship between gesture recognition skills and structural language (i.e. vocabulary and morphosyntax), we are collecting longitudinal data of monolingual and bilingual children aged 3- 6 years participating in different tasks in the context of a larger multi-disciplinary project in Switzerland and Germany. Children were examined at three measurement points (t1-t3) within up to 3 years in a comprehensive playful assessment battery.
At t1, 275 mono- and 149 preschool bilingual children speaking German or French and, for bilinguals, Italian (n = 76) or Turkish (n = 73) participated. Gesture recognition was measured at t1 and t3 in a language-fair task adapted from Marentette and Nicoladis (2011). Children watched 18 videos of actors performing non-verbal iconic gestures (e.g., driving). After each video, they chose the picture of the object that was related to the action in the video (e.g., car) among three distractors (e.g., bottle, shoe, kite) (see Figure 1). Children’s language skills were assessed at all timepoints via productive and receptive vocabulary and sentence comprehension tasks in each language.
Currently, about 45% of the sample has gone through t2 but only 20% through t3, which is why longitudinal data are available primarily for the language scores. Therefore, first longitudinal multilevel analyses focus on the effects of gesture recognition on language development. Preliminary analyses with age at t1, gender, nonverbal IQ, parental education and linguistic background as covariates show that gesture recognition is strongly associated with children's language scores in both monolinguals and bilinguals in all language facets. For the societal language, these links seem to appear earlier for monolinguals than for bilinguals (in the cross-sectional analyses at t1: Beta-mono = .21 -.38 vs Beta-bi = .07 - .21; psDIFF <. 05), but they last longer for the bilinguals (effects on linear growth: Beta-mono = -.58 - -.01 vs Beta-bi = -.28 - .05; psDIFF <. 05). Thus, gesture recognition seems to be important especially for early language development, when gestures can provide an important interactional aid. With increasing language competence, however, its importance seems to decrease.
In analyses with the full dataset, complete cross-lagged analyses will be possible, which may also reveal effects of language skills on gesture comprehension (see Figure 2). We will also be able to assess associations between gesture recognition and bilingual children’s home language skills.
We will discuss the contribution of our research to current studies on non-verbal communication and language development in bilingual children, and reflect on future educational and clinical applications in the assessment of bilingual children.

Authors

• Letizia Volpin, Université de Neuchâtel

• Robin Klaus Segerer, University of Basel

• Katrin Skoruppa
  Presenting Author