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APA Tip of the Day: Plurality of ‘data’ “Data” is a plural noun. Therefore: The data are… NOT: The data is… The data were collected… Not: The data was collected…

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Today’s Topic: Gesture as Communication: Deictic and Representational Gestures

Deixis Reference by means of an expression whose interpretation is relative to the context, not necessarily the content of the utterance, such as: o who is speaking o the time or place of speaking o the gestures of the speaker, or o the current location of the discourse. From: LinguaLinks (

Examples of deictic expressions I/you (person deixis) here/there (place deixis) Ud./tú (social deixis) yesterday/today/tomorrow or now/then (time deixis) From: LinguaLinks (

Deictic Gestures:  proto- imperatives  proto- declaratives

Proto-imperatives: (usually emerge around 9 months) “gestures that function to engage the adults as a tool for obtaining a desired object.” (Iverson & Thal,1998, p. 60)

Proto-declaratives: (appear after proto-imperatives) “gestures that function to indicate an object with the goal of gaining the adult’s attention.” (Iverson & Thal,1998, p. 60)

Representational Gestures:  object related gestures  culturally defined conventional gestures “Representational gestures both establish reference and carry some fixed semantic content” (Iverson & Thal, 1998, p. 61)

Object related gestures: These are gestures that “represent some aspect of a referent” and can “be produced either with or without the referent in hand.” (Iverson & Thal, 1998, p. 61)

Culturally defined conventional gestures:  social markers  conventional (not idiosyncratic) Example: waving bye-bye

Small Group Activity #1: Discuss in small group: o Gesture may be one aspect of communication in which comprehension does not precede production. What might be some implications of this for students with severe disabilities, particularly in a classroom setting?

Quick Write What have you learned about the development of gestures that seems important to you as an educator?

Developing Coordinated Attention: 1. Attending to social partners: looking at people who draw their attention.

Developing Coordinated Attention, cont.: 2. Supported joint engagement: looking at an object which caregiver then also attends to.

Developing Coordinated Attention, cont.: 3. Coordinated joint engagement: Switching attention between caregiver and object they are both attending to.

Small Group Activity #2: Using the Iverson & Thal reading, come up with a timeline for the development of early communication, including gestures and eye gaze.

Important Points about Gestures: Early gestures are not true symbols -- they are highly context bound (i.e. within a certain routine). However, they may develop into symbols as children learn to use them creatively and within a variety of different situations. Typically developing children use both gestures and words when they are learning to communicate.

Important Points, cont.: When children are using word-gesture combinations, this may indicate that they are almost ready to start using two-word combinations. The use of gestures (or alternative and augmentative communication systems) by caretakers does not delay oral language development -- it may help it! This supports the use of total communication with children with language delays.

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Mid-Semester Evaluation: How’s it going for you so far?