Iconic gestures support novel word learning in multilingual students with SLCN in classrooms

Learning academic vocabulary is a crucial task for all students, but especially challenging for students with speech, language, and communication needs (SLCN) and those who are multilingual. Following a participatory research strategy, we analyze whether iconic gestures can be integrated in teaching routines in an inclusive elementary school and whether the presentation of iconic gestures supports novel word learning over the period of four math lessons. One hundred and sixteen students (44% boys), the majority (91%) with SLCN, participated in the study. We conducted a control group design in eight classes with pre- and post-testing of a target academic vocabulary on the topic “Geometric surfaces and solids.” Results show a significant increase in the acquisition of the receptive and expressive target academic vocabulary for all students, but a predominance of expressive learning performance in favor of students who observed iconic gestures during lessons. Iconic gestures can be easily implemented into teaching, improve novel word learning in students with SLCN and serve as a cuing strategy for naming words in students with severe SLCN.