Capone Nina C
Department of Speech-Language Pathology, School of Graduate Medical Education, Seton Hall University, 400 South Orange Avenue, Alfieri Hall, Room 33, South Orange, NJ 07079, USA.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2007 Jun;50(3):732-45. doi: 10.1044/1092-4388(2007/051).
This study presents evidence that gesture is a means to understanding the semantic representations of toddlers.
The data were part of a study of toddlers' word learning conducted by N. C. Capone and K. K. McGregor (2005). The object function probe from that study was administered after 1 exposure and after 3 exposures to objects. Here, toddlers' gestures were described and their gesture-speech combinations were analyzed as a function of instruction and time.
A large proportion of toddlers gestured. Gestures were iconic and deictic, but toddlers produced more iconic gestures than previously reported. Consistent with studies of older children, toddlers produced gesture-speech combinations that reflected their learning state.
Gesture can be both a source of semantic knowledge and an expression of that knowledge. Gesture provides a window onto evolving semantic representations and, therefore, can be 1 method of assessing what a child knows at a time when oral language skills are limited and are, perhaps, an unreliable indicator of what the child knows. Embodied knowledge may underlie the use of gesture. Clinical implications are discussed.
本研究提供证据表明，手势是理解幼儿语义表征的一种方式。
这些数据是N.C.卡波内和K.K.麦格雷戈（2005年）进行的一项幼儿词汇学习研究的一部分。该研究中的目标功能探测在幼儿接触物体1次后和3次后进行。在此，描述了幼儿的手势，并分析了他们的手势与言语组合，作为指令和时间的函数。
很大一部分幼儿会使用手势。手势具有象形性和指示性，但幼儿产生的象形手势比之前报道的更多。与对年龄较大儿童的研究一致，幼儿产生的手势与言语组合反映了他们的学习状态。
手势既可以是语义知识的来源，也是该知识的一种表达。手势为不断发展的语义表征提供了一个窗口，因此，在口语技能有限且可能是儿童所知内容的不可靠指标时，手势可以作为评估儿童所知内容的一种方法。具身知识可能是手势使用的基础。文中讨论了临床意义。
