איך נראה בום? ג'סטות של פעוטות בקריאה משותפת של סיפור

Researchers agree that gestures play a unique role in communication development,and that they have a complex relationship with the acquisition of language (Dromi & Ringold-Primerman, 1996; Volterra et al., 2017 Adamson, Bakeman &Smith, 1998). While the communicative role of gestures in development has been extensively researched (Goldin-Meadow, 2015 ; Volterra et al., 2017), research on the development of the structural components of gestures is still in its infancy(McNeill, 1992). Nevertheless, studies done on the structural components of adult gestures emphasize the consistent contribution of these components in conveyingthe message in interaction )Muller et al., 2010(.The present study aimed to establish an analytical infrastructurethat characterizes the consistent use toddlers make of various structural components of gestures and examine these characteristics in the toddler interaction during a shared book reading. The study relied on the linguistic analysis of sign languages, which shows that phonological components of signs could be described similarly to spoken languages (Klima & Bellugi 1979;Stokoe, 1960; Sandler & Lillo-Martin 2006).The first part of the paper described the formal characterization of the gestures of 14 toddlers with typical development, interacting with an adult during the shared reading of a storybook. This relationship is characterized by multiple uses of deictic gesture - pointing, as opposed to the almost complete absence of other deictic gestures. These findings suggest that the consistency of gesture use is reflected in the gesture repertoire in the specific context.The second part of the paper described the structural characterization of the gestures produced by six toddlers with cerebral palsy during the shared book reading. Our findings suggested that gestations of toddlers' with cerebral palsy have structural characteristics similar to those of toddlers with typical development,albeit with limited motor repertoire. A key finding was that despite the difficulty in producing gestures in their agreed-upon form, toddlers with cerebral palsy recruit forms that carry consistent meaning in order to communicate with their mothers,allowing these children to participate in the interaction. The implications of these findings on assessment and therapeutic intervention are extensively discussed.