We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
Developmental Pathways Between Infant Gestures and Symbolic Actions, and Children's Communicative Skills at Age 5: Findings From the All Our Families Pregnancy Cohort.
- Authors
Morin‐Lessard, Elizabeth; Hentges, Rochelle F.; Tough, Suzanne C.; Graham, Susan A.; Morin-Lessard, Elizabeth
- Abstract
Using data from the All Our Families study, a longitudinal study of 1992 mother-child dyads in Canada (47.7% female; 81.9% White), we examined the developmental pathways between infant gestures and symbolic actions and communicative skills at age 5. Communicative gestures at age 12 months (e.g., pointing, nodding head "yes"), obtained via parental report, predicted stronger general communicative skills at age 5 years. Moreover, greater use of symbolic actions (e.g., "feeding" a stuffed animal with a bottle) indirectly predicted increased communicative skills at age 5 via increased productive vocabulary at 24 months. These pathways support the hypothesis that children's communicative skills during the transition to kindergarten emerge from a chain of developmental abilities starting with gestures and symbolic actions during infancy.
- Subjects
COMMUNICATION; GESTURE; SIGNS &; symbols; VOCABULARY; CHILD development; CHILDREN'S language
- Publication
Child Development, 2021, Vol 92, Issue 3, p799
- ISSN
0009-3920
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1111/cdev.13567