Gestures

Early Gestures

Before language develops, infants are already communicating effectively with gestures. Gestures acquired by infants include pointing and waving, as well as nodding and shaking their heads. Gestures can serve many different social functions, including making requests of various types, directing attention, as well as responding to questions. For example, the gesture of a 9-month-old infant reaching toward a caregiver can function as a request to be picked up. At 13 months an infant extending her arm and opening and closing her fingers can be a request for more of what she was eating. Pointing can also be used to make a request or to direct others’ attention, as well as for other functions. For instance, at 13 months, an infant who is asked where he is going may respond by pointing toward the intended location. A slightly older toddler at 16 months may have learned a waving gesture for saying goodbye and extends its use to indicating that he has finished his food or book. Another infant may use waving to indicate [Page 966]that she wants the baby-sitter to leave. Gestures can also be used in combination with other ways to communicate, such as a 16-month-old making a request by giving a toy shovel to an adult and pointing to the garden to indicate where to dig. Another infant may ask her father to read by picking up a book, looking at him, and pointing toward the couch. In another instance, a 16-month-old toddler can make a request for music by looking at her mother while pantomiming the act of dancing in front of the computer (where music comes from). As toddlers learn language, words can be used along with gestures, and may replace the gestures. However, gestures remain a part of communication and continue into adulthood as an integrated aspect of language.

The Development of Types of Gestures

In exploring the development of gestural communication, some gestures, particularly those that emerge quite early, appear to be based on actions that infants perform naturally. For instance, reaching toward a caregiver with both arms, something that infants habitually do, shows a desire to be picked up, and parents often respond by picking the child up. As infants learn how their parents respond to this action, the pattern of interaction typically develops into a request to be picked up, often by 9 months of age. Similarly, an infant in a high chair may attempt to grasp an object that is out of reach. The infant’s desire is evident in her reaching action, and a caregiver may respond by giving the object to the infant. Although initially the infant is concerned only with the object itself, unaware of the caregiver’s potential role as a facilitator, over time that infant can learn how others respond to her actions, and she can learn how to intentionally make a request in this way. Accordingly, infants begin communicating to their caregivers incidentally before they are aware that they are communicating and then can intentionally communicate. In George Herbert Mead’s terms, infants learn about the meaning that already existed in the interaction for the adult. This also seems to be the way that gestures are acquired in other great apes (i.e., nonhuman primates).

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