WHATS COMMUNICATION GOT TO DO WITH IT - GESTURE IN CHILDREN BLIND FROM BIRTH

It is widely accepted that gesture can serve a communicative function. The purpose of this study was to explore gesture use in congenitally blind individuals who have never seen gesture and have no experience w ith its communicative function. Four children blind from birth were te sted in 3 discourse situations (narrative, reasoning, and spatial dire ctions) and compared with groups of sighted and blindfolded sighted ch ildren. Blind children produced gestures, although not in all of the c ontexts in which sighted children gestured, and the gestures they prod uced resembled those of sighted children in both form and content. Res ults suggest that gesture may serve a function for the speaker that is independent of its impact on the listener.