Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy.
Infant Behav Dev. 2012 Dec;35(4):847-59. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2012.07.024. Epub 2012 Sep 13.
This longitudinal study investigated individual differences in the relationship between words and representational gestures in a sample of 104 Italian children between 12 and 23 months of age, using two parent-report questionnaires. Multivariate analyses reached three main conclusions. First, a high gesture frequency did not enhance language development when word production was equated and children showing a prevalence of words over gestures outperformed those showing a prevalence of gestures over words at all ages. Second, an early predominance of gestures at 12 months did not hamper the acquisition of verbal abilities, while the persistence of a gestural advantage at 16 and 20 months was related to a slower language development at 23 months. Finally, for infants with small gestural repertoires at 12 months, a high frequency of gesture use benefitted the process of lexical learning. These findings support the hypothesis that representational gestures bridge the transition from pre-linguistic to symbolic communication. However, they also suggest that the role of representational gestures might be less critical than previously proposed, being mostly evident in the earlier phases of the second year of life.
本纵向研究使用两份家长报告问卷，调查了 104 名 12 至 23 个月大的意大利儿童样本中单词和表象手势之间关系的个体差异。多变量分析得出了三个主要结论。首先，当单词生成相同时，高手势频率并不能促进语言发展，而且在所有年龄段，表现出单词优势的儿童均优于表现出手势优势的儿童。其次，12 个月时早期的手势优势并不会阻碍言语能力的习得，而 16 个月和 20 个月时持续的手势优势与 23 个月时语言发展较慢有关。最后，对于 12 个月时手势词汇量较小的婴儿来说，高频率的手势使用有助于词汇学习过程。这些发现支持了表象手势在从前语言到符号交流的过渡中起桥梁作用的假设。然而，它们也表明表象手势的作用可能不如先前提出的那么重要，其主要作用在生命的第二年的早期阶段较为明显。
