Is vision necessary for the timely acquisition of language-specific patterns in co-speech gesture and their lack in silent gesture?

Blind adults display language-specificity in their packaging and ordering of events in speech. These differences affect the representation of events in co-speech gesture–gesturing with speech–but not in silent gesture–gesturing without speech. Here we examine when in development blind children begin to show adult-like patterns in co-speech and silent gesture. We studied speech and gestures produced by 30 blind and 30 sighted children learning Turkish, equally divided into 3 age groups: 5–6, 7–8, 9–10 years. The children were asked to describe three-dimensional spatial event scenes (e.g., running out of a house) first with speech, and then without speech using only their hands. We focused on physical motion events, which, in blind adults, elicit cross-linguistic differences in speech and co-speech gesture, but cross-linguistic similarities in silent gesture. Our results showed an effect of language on gesture when it was accompanied by speech (co-speech gesture), but not when it was used without speech (silent gesture) across both blind and sighted learners. The language-specific co-speech gesture pattern for both packaging and ordering semantic elements was present at the earliest ages we tested the blind and sighted children. The silent gesture pattern appeared later for blind children than sighted children for both packaging and ordering. Our findings highlight gesture as a robust and integral aspect of the language acquisition process at the early ages and provide insight into when language does and does not have an effect on gesture, even in blind children who lack visual access to gesture.

Research Highlights

• Gestures, when produced with speech (i.e., co-speech gesture), follow language-specific patterns in event representation in both blind and sighted children.
• Gestures, when produced without speech (i.e., silent gesture), do not follow the language-specific patterns in event representation in both blind and sighted children.
• Language-specific patterns in speech and co-speech gestures are observable at the same time in blind and sighted children.
• The cross-linguistic similarities in silent gestures begin slightly later in blind children than in sighted children.