1-034 - Playing with words: How parents highlight event structure through language and gesture

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

A wealth of research suggests that both the quantity and quality of language in a child’s environment are important for language development (e.g., Cartmill et al., 2010; Hart & Risley, 1995; Rowe, 2012). One potential mechanism underlying this link is the way in which this input facilitates children’s understanding of events encoded in language. This symposium builds on this line of inquiry to examine the various ways in which parent language and gesture highlight actions and relations in events during play. We address two questions: 1) What factors influence the quantity and quality of parent talk and gesture during play? and 2) How does this input influence how children think and talk about events?
The first paper builds on the finding that parents of infants align their speech with their actions to acoustically highlight the boundaries of those actions (Meyer, et al., 2011). The authors ask whether this audiovisual synchrony persists in parents’ interactions with preschoolers, who possess a greater knowledge of events and language. The second paper examines how mothers’ awareness of the importance of spatial thinking affects their gestures in spatial play and how these gestures may affect the child’s completion of puzzle/block building activities. The third paper investigates links between infants’ understanding of path and manner of motion and their later use of relational language, including how parental relational language and gesture may influence this trajectory. Finally, our discussant integrates these findings, focusing on factors influencing parental input and their implications for children’s understanding of events.

Sub Unit

• Language, Communication

Chair

• Nathan R George, Adelphi University

Discussant

• Susan Levine, University of Chicago

Individual Presentations

• Stacking Evidence: Parents’ use of acoustic packaging continues into the preschool years - Presenting Author: Federica Bulgarelli, Penn State University; Nathan R George, Adelphi University; Daniel Weiss, Penn State University

• Guiding knowledge by guiding hands: Can we increase maternal gesture during spatial play with preschoolers? - Presenting Author: Giulia Alexandra Borriello, The Pennsylvania State University; Lynn Liben, Pennsylvania State University

• Learning relational words: A longitudinal study - Yağmur Deniz Kısa, Koç University; İlkim Sarıçimen, Koç University; Aslı Aktan Erciyes, Bogazici University; Presenting Author: Tilbe Göksun, Koç University