Einfluss ikonischer Gesten auf das Wortlernen von Kindern mit und ohne umschriebene Sprachentwicklungsstörung: Eine Trainingsstudie

This project aimed at investigating the impact of iconic co-speech gestures on word learning in preschool children. Iconic gestures are considered to be beneficial for word learning since they illustrate properties of the referent and thus possibly facilitate language processing and retention of new words. This might in particluar profit children with specific language impairment who - apart from problems with grammar and speech - may also face difficulty with vocabulary acquisition. There is increasing evidence of a beneficial effect of iconic gesture on word learning. However, generalization of previous research has serious limitations. In a training study, we taught children with and without specific language impairment new words. Words were presented with either iconic or non-iconic gestures. Following training, word learning was assessed through varying tasks. Results show an advantage of iconic gesture over non-iconic gesture. Iconic gesture effectively influenced word learning of children with and without language impairment. They facilitated establishing the link of a new lexical form and its meaning and retention of the new word. In particular children with language impairment made use of iconic gesture for understanding and reflecting the word´s meaning and build up meaning representations. This study supplements and expands existing knowledge on how iconic co-speech gesture influences and promotes word learning in children with and without language impairment. The results show that iconic gesture above other gesture types has the potential to support word learning. Moreover, they reveal that children with language impairment particularly benefit from the additional visual information gesture provides. Therefore, gesture in general, and specifically