The DOI matches its Crossref record; 37 of the 37 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Learning words by hand: Gesture's role in predicting vocabulary development
Open accessAbstract
Children vary widely in how quickly their vocabularies grow. Can looking at early gesture use in children and parents help us predict this variability? We videotaped 53 English-speaking parent-child dyads in their homes during their daily activities for 90-minutes every four months between child age 14 and 34 months. At 42 months, children were given the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT). We found that child gesture use at 14 months was a significant predictor of vocabulary size at 42 months, above and beyond the effects of parent and child word use at 14 months. Parent gesture use at 14 months was not directly related to vocabulary development, but did relate to child gesture use at 14 months which, in turn, predicted child vocabulary. These relations hold even when background factors such as socio-economic status are controlled. The findings underscore the importance of examining early gesture when predicting child vocabulary development.
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“Gestures are predictors of children's language development (e.g., Brooks & Meltzoff, 2008; Rowe et al., 2008; Rowe & Goldin‐Meadow, 2009).”
From The role of dyadic combinations of infants' behaviors and caregivers' verbal and multimodal responses in predicting vocabulary outcomes (2025) · cites this paper as Rowe et al., 2008
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Child Deictic Gesture Use and Maternal Labeling in Toddlers With Down Syndrome
Mattie, L. J., Fanta, D., Falcon, E., & Hadley, P. A. (2026) · American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology · doi:10.1044/2025_ajslp-25-00258
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Bélanger, R., & Bond, J. (2026) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.6256106
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Forestier, S. (2019) · theses.fr (ABES) · doi:10.70675/abd58967z79d0z4df2zbe94z307821e9b628 · Cited by 3
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Nicoladis, E., & Boulos, Y. (2026) · Gesture · doi:10.1075/gest.25020.nic
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Parental speech and gesture scaffolding moderate the neural dynamics of parent-child synchrony
Li, Y., & Demir‐Lira, Ö. E. (2026) · Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2026.101771
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Effects of individual differences and task demand on co-speech gesture
Lin, S.-J., Horne, A. O. V., Cook, S. W., Duff, M. C., McGregor, K. K., & Tomblin, J. B. (2015) · doi:10.17077/etd.p3eh1usp
Metadata
- Authors
- Rowe, M. L., Özçalışkan, Ş., & Goldin-Meadow, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Chicago (US)
- University of Chicago
- Corresponding author
- Rowe, Meredith L.
- Venue
- First Language
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2008-05
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 182-199
- ISSN
- 0142-7237 (ISSN-L)
- 1740-2344
- PMC
- PMC2745165
- OpenAlex
- W2036222349
- Cited by
- 315
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 32 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 24 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 19 · 2012: 21
- FWCI
- 12.89
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- First Language (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (F32HD045099, P01HD040605)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Hearing Impairment and Communication
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- vocabulary development, predictive validity, parent-child interaction, early childhood language development, home language environment, socioeconomic status, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, child-directed speech
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