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- Title
Early gesture use predicts children's language development in South Korea: New evidence supporting the cross‐cultural importance of pointing.
- Authors
Shin, So Yeon; Rowe, Meredith L.; Lee, Hyun Suk
- Abstract
Research in the U.S. and other Western countries shows that children's early gesture use, which starts prior to verbal communication, is an important predictor of children's later language development. Despite increasing efforts to study gesture use in diverse contexts, most of our knowledge on the role of gesture is largely based on populations of Western countries. In this study, we add to the growing body of international research by examining gesture use by 31 mothers and their 14‐month‐old infants (12 girls) in South Korea and investigate the gestures used during interaction, and whether early gesture use at 14 months predicts Korean children's later language skills at 36 months. The results showed that in addition to using gestures observed in other cultural contexts, Korean mother‐child dyads used culturally specific gesture (i.e., bowing), showing an early sign of socialization that starts with preverbal children. In addition, Korean infants' index‐finger pointing, but not showing and giving, predicted their later receptive and expressive vocabulary skills at 36 months, providing additional support for the importance of pointing in early language development.
- Subjects
SOUTH Korea; COMMUNICATIVE competence; MOTHERS; EARLY intervention (Education); NONVERBAL communication; CAREGIVERS; CHILD development; MOTHER-child relationship; VOCABULARY; LANGUAGE acquisition; TRANSCULTURAL medical care
- Publication
Infancy, 2024, Vol 29, Issue 3, p327
- ISSN
1525-0008
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/infa.12585