Encouraging Pointing with the Right Hand, but Not the Left Hand, Gives Right-Handed 3-Year-Olds a Linguistic Advantage

Autor/inn/en	Mumford, Katherine H.; Aussems, Suzanne; Kita, Sotaro
Titel	Encouraging Pointing with the Right Hand, but Not the Left Hand, Gives Right-Handed 3-Year-Olds a Linguistic Advantage
Quelle	In: Developmental Science, 26 (2023) 3, (13 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Aussems, Suzanne) ORCID (Kita, Sotaro)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1363-755X
DOI	10.1111/desc.13315
Schlagwörter	Nonverbal Communication; Handedness; Toddlers; Vocabulary Development; Language Processing; Brain Hemisphere Functions; Memory; Verbs + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Non-verbal communication; Nonverbale Kommunikation; Linkshändigkeit; Infant; Infants; Toddler; Kleinkind; Wortschatzarbeit; Sprachverarbeitung; Gedächtnis
Abstract	Previous research has shown a strong positive association between right-handed gesturing and vocabulary development. However, the causal nature of this relationship remains unclear. In the current study, we tested whether gesturing with the right hand enhances linguistic processing in the left hemisphere, which is contralateral to the right hand. We manipulated the gesture hand children used in pointing tasks to test whether it would affect their performance. In either a linguistic task (verb learning) or a non-linguistic control task (memory), 131 typically developing right-handed 3-year-olds were encouraged to use either their right hand or left hand to respond. While encouraging children to use a specific hand to indicate their responses had no effect on memory performance, encouraging children to use the right hand to respond, compared to the left hand, significantly improved their verb learning performance. This study is the first to show that manipulating the hand with which children are encouraged to gesture gives them a linguistic advantage. Language lateralization in healthy right-handed children typically involves a dominant left hemisphere. Producing right-handed gestures may therefore lead to increased activation in the left hemisphere which may, in turn, facilitate forming and accessing lexical representations. It is important to note that this study manipulated gesture handedness among right-handers and does therefore not support the practice of encouraging children to become right-handed in manual activities. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01