Gesture and early bilingual development

The relationship between speech and gestural proficiency was investigated l ongitudinally (from 2 years to 3 years 6 months, at 6-month intervals) in 5 French-English bilingual boys with varying proficiency in their 2 language s. Because of their different levels of proficiency in the 2 languages at t he same age, these children's data were used to examine the relative contri bution of language and cognitive development to gestural development. In te rms of rate of gesture production, rate of gesture production with speech, and meaning of gesture and speech, the children used gestures much like adu lts from 2 years on. In contrast, the use of iconic and beat gestures showe d differential development in the children's 2 languages as a function of m ean length of utterance. These data suggest that the development of these k inds of gestures may be more closely linked to language development than ot her kinds (such as points). Reasons why this might be so are discussed.