Our Research Goals
In this study, we will examine video of children's early birthday parties for examples of gestures, like pointing, waving, reaching toward objects, and so on. We will be studying how often kids gesture and the variety of gestures that they use. We will also be looking for a specific type of communicative competence: we are asking the question "Are children using gestures that make sense in their social environment?"
Gestures can make use of three different senses or modalities. Auditory gestures produce sound, like claps, or banging objects on a table. Tactile gestures involve touching another person. Finally, visual gestures don't involve sound or touching, and include common gestures like waving or pointing. Visual gestures only make sense when someone is looking at the gesturer; auditory and tactile gestures make sense whether or not someone is looking at the gesturer. If children systematically use visual gestures, it can be evidence of a type of communicative competence.
We want to examine this ability in children with typical development, but also kids with atypical development, like children with autism and other developmental disabiliites. We are also interested to see if we can document how this ability might change in children over time.
If we find that differences between different groups of kids, we might be able to improve early diagnosis of autism and other disabilities, and might be able to improve how we teach early communication skills.
