What are the Important Gesture Milestones for Your Child?
Gestures are one of the earliest forms of communication. They are a good indication of how your child’s language will develop.
Your child learns gestures by watching you and your reactions. The earliest gestures serve as a way to get attention and communicate the child’s needs. Gestures are what lay the foundation for language development. If your child is reaching the expected gesture milestones, this means that they are less likely to be speech delayed. However, if your child is missing some of these critical milestones, the best thing to do is to seek early intervention to help facilitate development. Here are some gesture milestones that would signify that your child is where they should be. These are approximate and they may not have all of these by the certain age range and this is ok, continue working on them and building their gesture and language.
9-13 Months
Around 9 months is when the earliest gesture can begin to emerge from their actions. This could be shaking their head to indicate no. For example, they can learn to shake their head when you are feeding them. They turn their head away to indicate they are done and you respond by moving the food away giving. Giving is another gesture that begins to emerge around the 9 month age. The first learn to accept or take an object you give them, but then quickly learn to give objects. This can be facilitated by the parent extend their hand to their child with an open palm while they are holding something. These gestures are simple gestures at first and serve to get attention. The gestures will not necessarily be coordinated but will be able to get the point across. Eventually, these simpler motions will develop into reaching, requesting, waving, etc.
Around 10 months, children learn to reach through exploring their toys and surroundings and raise their arms up. Children often will reach and extend their arms up to be picked up.
At 11 months children will learn to show and wave. Children are motivated to share their toys and experiences with others. They are also motivated by social interactions and will begin to wave intentionally (when parents are coming home or leaving).
After play schemes using objects, a child will use representational gestures before developing around 25 words or before turning two years old. Representational gestures represent an object or action with body language. For example, a child can pretend to lick if they want a lollipop, or they will close their eyes and rest their head on the side to indicate sleep.
12-18 Months
At 12 months, something called play schemes begins to emerge. In the early stages, it could be using a toy fork in a kitchen set and pretending to eat with it. This could even be to represent that they are hungry. In later stages, it will be more sophisticated such as using a toy kitchen to pretend to cook. The key here is that a child still uses an object to communicate.
Around 13 months, children will begin learn language through observation. They learn by observing others and copying what they do and say. At this time, they may learn gestures such as clapping their hands and blowing a kiss.
At 14 months children point will begin to use the gestures to point with their index finger to reference things at a distance. This is a sign of observational learning which is a foundation for becoming a symbolic communicator. Another gesture they use the “shhhh” gesture.
Around 15 months children are well on their way to using gestures as a symbolic communicator. They are now reflecting not only what the child is thinking but also that they know they are sharing ideas with you. Gestures that emerge at this age include a head nod or thumbs up to indicate yes or if something is smelly, they may wave their hand in front of their face.
At 16 months more other symbolic gestures begin to develop. Gestures now reinforce the learning of spoken words. These gestures may include such “I dunno”, “high 5”, or even the universal peace sign.
Up to 18 months, a child will typically use just a gesture OR word and it may not be in combination yet. When the child is over 18 months, they begin to develop the ability to use a combination of words and gestures. Eventually, gestures will serve more to supplement speech rather than serve as a core way of communication as spoken language will become the main form of communication.
28 Months
By 28 months, beat gestures emerge. Beat gestures are not symbolic, or they don’t represent any meaning. They simply punctuate or emphasize what a person is saying. Beat gestures are basically hand movements that go along with the rhythm of the sentence. So, when your tone rises, your hands would rise. If you watch speakers, you can see many “talk with their hands.” This doesn’t mean sign language or representational gestures (like crossing the arms to represent done or shrugging to represent that they don’t know). In beat gestures, the hand movements coincide with the ends of sentences or the cadence of the sentence.
Conclusion
Gesture development is an important foundation for language development. Gestures serve as a form of communication before language. Gestures first emerge to gain attention, and later develop into symbolic depictions, and then into representational. As spoken language first develops, gestures accommodate or supplement language. Eventually, words begin to slowly replace the use of gestures. Finally, the child will develop beat gestures, which serve no meaning but accommodate the rhythm or structure of a sentence. Most importantly, if you see that your child is not reaching these crucial gesture milestones, it is crucial to seek early intervention to help your child facilitate development.
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Capone, N. C., and K. K. McGregor. “Gesture Development: A Review for Clinical Research Practices,” Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 47, no. 1 (2004): 173-186. https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2004/015)
“16 Gestures by 16 Months” First Words Project, accessed 19 October 2022, https://firstwordsproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/16-Gestures-x16-Months.pdf