GESTURES AND WORDS DURING THE TRANSITION TO 2-WORD SPEECH

This study explores the communicative use of the gestural and vocal mo dalities by normally developing Italian children during the transition from one- to two-word speech. We analysed the spontaneous production of 12 children at 1;4 and at 1;8, focusing on the use of two-element c ombinations of words and/or gestures. Results indicated that use of ge sture and gesture-word combinations during the transition to two-word speech is a robust feature of communicative development across a relat ively large number of children in a rich gestural culture, and that th e number of gesture-word and two-word combinations increased significa ntly from 1;4 to 1;8. Number of gestures and gesture-word combinations produced at 1;4 was also predictive of total vocal production at 1,8. Findings are discussed in terms of the role of gesture as a transitio nal device en route to two-word speech.