The Development of Communicative Gestures in Japanese Infants

Abstract

Twelve Japanese infant-mother dyads were video-recorded at home in naturalistic interaction approximately every two weeks at varying ages between 9 and 14 months. Changes in their gestural repertoire that were similar to other groups studied previously were: an increase over sessions in Comment gestures, namely pointing but not showing, and a decrease in overall Request gestures, particularly reaching. Request gestures involving cognizance of agency increased, however. Increases in Object exchange gestures and decreases in Protest/Rejection and Emotive gestures found in previous studies were not replicated in this group. Agency gestures after 12 months were related to number of words understood, as reported on the JCDI. There was good agreement on the whole between gestures reported by mothers on the JCDI and the same gestures observed directly. These results provide some support for the universality of key gestural changes considered important for language acquisition.

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