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Chapter 9. Infants' Prespeech Gestures

Human Development Video Activity
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INFANTS' PRESPEECH GESTURES

Estimated Completion Time:

Approximately 5 minutes.

Synopsis:

In their research on infants’ speech development, Linda Acredolo (University of California-Davis) and Susan Goodwyn (California State University-Stanislaus) found that many infants can use gestures before they are able to articulate speech. The following clips illustrate some typical examples of these “baby signs.”

In their research on infants’ speech development, Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn found that before they are able to articulate speech, many infants spontaneously make up gestures to signify things or actions that have importance for them. The following clips illustrate some typical examples of these “baby signs.”

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1.

Infants’ ability to communicate certain words and ideas before they are able to articulate them verbally is consistent with what evolutionary theory about language?

Some theorists argue that the emergence of bipedalism in human evolution opened the way to the use of gesturing as a means of communication and that, with these changes in the vocal tract and brain, gesturing evolved into spoken language.

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