Psychologists have discovered that parents use a physical version of baby speak when they are talking to infants that seems designed to help them understand words better.

The researchers claim that children whose mothers regularly use baby gestures, dubbed gesturese, learn words up to four months earlier than those whose parents are poor at gesturing.

Maria O'Neill, who led the research team at Portsmouth University, now hopes to use the findings to develop a training programme for children who are struggling to learn to speak.

Her study found that, without realising it, mothers use a coherent system of exaggerated gestures while talking to their children that helps clarify the meaning of words for the youngsters.

They include:

• Pointing at objects such as a dog while repeating the name;

• Tapping when counting items;

• Nodding and head shaking when saying yes or no;

• Waving while saying goodbye or hello;

• Finger-wagging when beckoning the child;

• Action mimicking when asking the child if they would like a drink or telling them it is time to brush their teeth.

O'Neill claims that, while adults use gestures and body language to emphasise what they are saying, gesturese helps to make words less ambiguous for children.

"We were really surprised by how large the effect is," she said. "Children aged between eight and nine months were able to learn target words far quicker if their mothers modified their gestures.

"Mothers who sensitively modify both speech and gesture tend to promote vocabulary development for children under two.

"It advanced the learning of 10 target words by around three to four months."

The study monitored the communication between mothers and their infants during counting tasks and during free play.

They found that the mothers unconsciously used gesturese in around 25% of their speech, and it accounted for 29% of all communication between mothers and their children while the infants were playing.

The majority of the gestures, around 90%, involved pointing at objects being named.

O'Neill said: "Gestures are easier for children to understand and to use themselves.

"When people are speaking to other adults their hands tend to wave around all over the place but have little actual meaning. Parental gestures are very meaningful and are usually used to help describe an object or a word with their hands. This switch seems to happen because the parents are sensitive to their child's understanding.

"Gesturese is a physical manifestation of baby speak which modifies gestural communication for young children."

O'Neill also claims that although her study examined mothers gesturing to their children, gesturese is used in varying degrees by all adults when speaking to babies.

She also found that women in the UK use baby gestures nearly twice as much as mothers involved in a similar study in Italy, a country traditionally thought to have a more physically expressive culture.

But she believes further research is needed to understand the differences in gesture rate between countries.

"There are striking similarities in the pattern of gestures used by mothers in different countries though," she added. "Gestures are an extension of all communication and not just the words and language used."

O'Neill, whose research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, is now attempting to find out which gestures are most useful in helping children learn words. She hopes they can help children who are struggling to learn how to talk.

Speech therapists already use a form of simplified sign language when working with children suffering from Down's Syndrome and autism.

But many oppose the use of 'baby sign' in normal children and believe it may even harm their development.

Marion Rutherford, of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists in Edinburgh, said: "Gestures support the meanings of words, but most parents would not have to modify their behaviour for their children to learn language. Any parents who have concerns about their children's speech development should see a therapist first before trying to modify their own behaviour."

The National Literacy Trust has now launched a campaign to encourage mothers to talk to their children from birth to help speech develop.

Liz Attenborough, manager of the Talk to your Baby campaign, said children's early interactions with adults were hugely important.

"Studies on Romanian orphans who received little contact with adults in their early life have found that they have language problems for the rest of their lives.

"Babies are born without all their neurological pathways connected, so their interactions during the first few months and years of life play an important part in how they develop."

By Richard Gray
http://news.scotsman.com/education.cfm?id=2384602005