Abstract
Previous studies have shown that older children gesture more while telling a story than younger children. This increase in gesture use has been attributed to increased story complexity. In adults, both narrative complexity and imagery predict gesture frequency. In this study, we tested the strength of three predictors of children’s gesture use in a narrative context: age, narrative complexity (measured by discourse connectors), and use of imagery (measured by story length). French-, Spanish-, and English-speaking children between 4 and 10 years participated in this study. Including these three groups allows us to test for the generalizability of our results and for cross-linguistic differences in gesture frequency. All the children watched cartoons and retold the story. The results showed that the length of the story was a significant predictor of children’s gesture rate while age and discourse connectors were not. There were no differences between language groups. One possible in interpretation of these results is that children’s gesture frequency is strongly linked to activation of imagery.
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Appendices
Appendix 1: Connectors Coded
French | English | Spanish |
|---|---|---|
à cause que | a couple hours later | a cada rato |
à chaque fois | actually | como (que) |
à la fin | after | cuando |
à un moment (donné) | already | de nuevo |
afin que | always | de repente |
alors | and | despuès |
après | and then | donde |
au début | at that point | entonces |
au fait là | at the beginning | hasta que |
aussi | at the end | o sea |
avant | because | para que |
ça fait que | before | pero |
comme | but | porque |
donc | finally | primero |
en plus | first | pues |
enfin | if | si |
ensuite | in the morning | tambien |
et | instead | todo el rato |
fait que là | meanwhile | y |
jusqu’à ce que | second | ya que |
là | still | |
mais | that | |
où | then | |
parce que | third | |
pendant ce temps là | until | |
pour que | what | |
puis | when | |
puisque | where | |
quand | while | |
si |
Appendix 2: Sample Stories
In this section, we present a sample of a story from the child who gestured the most and a child who did not gesture at all. In each case, we focused on the children’s accounts of the early part of the first story in which the cuckoo bird tries various ways of waking up the Pink Panther until he has had enough and throws the cuckoo bird and the cuckoo clock off a bridge. As will be seen, the children did not necessarily include the same scenes in their narrations. The bolded parts of the speech indicate approximately the timing of the gesture.
6-Year Old French-Speaking Boy (486 Word Tokens; 6.6 Gesture Rate; 6 Connectors)
Le tigre il aimait pas l’oiseau parce qu’il l’a réveillé tout le temps [g1] quand il dormait.
‘The tiger didn’t like the bird because he woke him up all the time when he was sleeping’
[g1] hands with fingers facing each other and rotating around each other to represent the bird continuously waking up the panther.
Mais il criait pour le réveiller [g2] puis ça le fatigue. Il voulait le tuer. Il avait des ciseaux, il mettait après son pied xxx le tuer. Puis il savait pas [g3] où l’oiseau était.
‘But he was screaming to wake him up and that tires him out. He wanted to kill him. He had some scissors, he was putting after his foot xxx to kill him. Then he didn’t know where the bird was.’
[g2] both hands flap away from each other to represent the bird screaming.
[g3] both hands with palms facing down move back and for the represent the question where or unknown location.
Il était parti. Il était dedans [g4] sa maison. Il a fait un trou [g5].
‘He was gone. He was inside his house. He made a hole.’
[g4] points to imagined location of bird
[g5] index finger out and repeatedly traces the shape of a hole to represent the bird making a hole.
6-Year Old French-Speaking Girl (193 Word Tokens; 0 Gestures; 8 Connectors)
Il y avait un petit chat mais je sais pas c’était quoi, un oiseau? Qui était dans un horloge. Puis là, il dérangeait le chat. Puis là, il est allé le jeter, puis quand qu’il a dormi le lendemain matin, là, il avait peur. Parce que il avait peur qu’il soit mort.
‘There was a little cat but I don’t know what it was, a bird? Who was in a clock. Then, he was bothering the cat. Then, he went to throw it out, then when he slept the next morning, he was afraid. Because he was afraid that he was dead.’
5-Year Old Spanish-Speaking Girl (463 Tokens, 8.0 Gesture Rate; 6 Connectors)
Entonces cuando volvió [g1], tocó la puerta [g2].
‘So when he came back, he knocked on the door.’
[g1] moves hands back
[g2] knocks on the door.
Entonces la pantera rosa abrió [g3] la puerta.
‘So the Pink Panther opened the door’
[g3] opens the door.
Y el pajaríto estaba con la batería y la tocaba [g4] y no podía dormir.
‘and the little bird was with the drum and played it and he couldn’t sleep.’
[g4] plays the drums
Entonces tomó al pajaríto [g5] y lo puso en el reloj.
‘so he took the little bird and put it in the clock’
[g5] grabs bird and moves fist forward.
Y lo tapó [g6] con tapón.
‘and covered it with (a) cork’
[g6] presses fingers of her right hand against her left palm, pushing cork into clock
Entonces ahí empezó a dormir y no pudo dormir igual.
‘So then he started to sleep and he still couldn’t sleep.’
7-Year Old Spanish-Speaking Boy (167 Word Tokens; 0 Gestures; 7 Connectors)
Él estaba soñando, pero era que el pajáro se fue al [sic] orilla después no me acuerdo si era un gato o un tigre que se iba al agua para buscarlo.
‘He was dreaming but it was that the bird went to the shore after I don’t remember if it was a cat or a tiger that went in the water to look for him.’
7-Year Old English Speaking Boy (658 Word Tokens; 9.1 Gesture Rate; 8 Connectors)
And then he doesn’t like the bird [g1] so he uh first [g2] he gets a hammer [g3] and lots and lots of wood [g4].
[g1; classified as “unknown”] holds both hands together in front of himself
[g2] hammering, holding hammer with both hands
[g3] picks up hammer
[g4] shows wood planks on the wall
And he goes like dumdumdum [g5]!
[g5] hammers, holding hammer with both hands
All over [g6] the whole wood.
[g6; classified as “deictic”] points to wood, as if the wood were in front of him
The bird comes out [g7] and then he pulled off the clock [g8] numbers and hands.
[g7] shows path of bird coming out of clock
[g8] pulls down off the wall
There’s a little hole and the [g9] birdie’s like “cuckoo cuckoo!”.
[g9] extended index finger traces a hole on a horizontal plane
And then he puts a cork [g10] in there.
[g10]: putting cork in hole
And then the bird saws off the back [g11]?
[g11] repeated sawing motion, as if holding saw
8-Year Old English-Speaking Girl (327 Word Tokens; 0 Gestures; 11 Connectors)
And the cuckoo clock was always waking him up and was annoying him. So he threw him in a lake. And then he went back home. And he went to sleep, had bad dreams so he felt sorry.
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Nicoladis, E., Marentette, P. & Navarro, S. Gesture Frequency Linked Primarily to Story Length in 4–10-Year Old Children’s Stories. J Psycholinguist Res 45, 189–204 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-014-9342-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-014-9342-2