Hand in hand : the role of gesture in the spoken French of deaf children

• Main Author: Trembath, Inger Marie
• Other Authors: Mayberry, Rachel I. (advisor)
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: McGill University 1994
• Subjects: Speech Communication.
• Online Access: http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=55415

This thesis investigated the nature of gesture and its relation to speech in deaf and hearing French-speaking children between the ages of four and six. Although the spoken language of the two groups was not different, significant differences were found in the amount and kinds of gestures produced. The deaf children produced significantly more gestures, and a higher proportion of iconics, than the hearing controls. The deaf children were systematic in their use of speech in conjunction with gesture in that they combined iconic gestures with verb phrases and points with noun phrases. This systematicity was not displayed by the hearing children. The deaf children were also found to gesture more frequently during partially intelligible than during intelligible utterances. The implications of this data for the speech-gesture relation are discussed.