Gestures Expressed by Children Who Are Congenitally Deaf-Blind: Topography, Rate, and Function

Abstract: This descriptive study examined the topography, rate, and function of gestures expressed by seven children who are congenitally deaf-blind. Participants expressed a total of 44 conventional and idiosyncratic gestures. They expressed 6-13 communicative functions through gestures and 7 functions through a single type of gesture. They also expressed idiosyncratic gestures and used specific gestures for functions other than those that are typically associated with those gestures. ********** Gestures are actions that are produced with the intent to communicate. They may be expressed by the hands, head, or entire body (Crais, Douglas, & Campbell, 2004). A strong relationship between the level of gesture and language has been found in children with typical development, but few studies have examined this connection in children with delayed development (McLean, Brady, McLean, & Behrens, 1999). Furthermore, few studies of special populations have examined the expression of specific functions through gestures (Crais et al., 2004). This descriptive study provides detailed information about the topography of gestures, frequency of gestural expression, and functions of gestures expressed by seven children who are congenitally deaf-blind in a school setting. The growing complexity of gestures The achievement of expressive gestures is a developmental process that is rooted in action. Initial gestures often incorporate contact with oneself, another, or an object. Many early gestures are highly individualized and may be understood only by those who know a child well (Marschark, 1994). Over time, gestures become increasingly complex. THE ROOT OF GESTURES IN OBJECT MANIPULATION AND ACTION Early gestures develop from children's interactions with objects. Acredolo, Goodwyn, Horobin, and Emmons (1999) examined the gestures of hearing children and categorized them as those that emerged from parent-child interaction and those that emerged from a child's experiences with objects. They found that the vast majority of gestures are representations of actions that are performed with objects. Such gestures are based more on the actions performed with an object than on the object's perceptual characteristics (Goodwyn, Acredolo, & Brown, 2000; Wetherby, Reichle, & Pierce, 1998). These early gestures that resemble actions performed on objects are one type of motor reenactment (Bruce, 2005). Over time, gestures become increasingly different from the actions performed upon objects (van Dijk, 1965), with later gestures bearing a similarity to the perceptual characteristics of objects (Marschark, 1994). CLASSIFYING THE COMPLEXITY OF GESTURES There are two ways of broadly classifying gestures--as either primitive and conventional or as contact and distal--but these classification systems are not precisely parallel in nature. Primitive gestures usually include the physical manipulation of oneself and others, such as pushing or pulling another (Ogletree, Fischer, & Turowski, 1996). Conventional gestures are less idiosyncratic to a child's experiences, which makes them more interpretable (Preisler, 1995). Conventional gestures are decontextualized (Ogletree et al., 1996), which means that a child can express them in a variety of contexts. McLean, Snyder-McLean, Brady, and Etter (1991) found that children and adults with disabilities who expressed themselves through conventional gestures communicated more often and produced more frequent communicative repairs. McClean et al. (1991) classified gestures as being either contact or distal, preferring not to use the term primitive because early gestures remain important to communication even after conventional gestures are achieved. Contact gestures involve physical contact with objects and people. McLean et al. (1999) found that individuals who used only contact gestures initiated communication less often, had lower rates of communication, and communicated fewer functions through gestures. …