March`s 'You Ask the Question'
[ 23 Mar 2009]A Speech and Language Therapist advises....
When adults are talking they often use gestures and this helps others to understand what is being said. The ability to gesture usually comes before the ability to talk and so a very young child can wave bye-bye before they can say the words. Gestures are therefore a necessary part of a child’s language development and an important stage to go through before being able to speak. Generally we should accept all forms of communication from a child both verbal (sounds, words and sentences) and non-verbal ( eye-contact, gestures, signs and body language). Gestures and signs do not replace the child’s need to talk, but it can reduce frustration, enable parents to know what their child means before he can say the word and helps children to understand what adults are saying, by providing two channels of communication for the child to use. Gesturing or more formalised signing are language development tools that can be very helpful to all children, rather than making them lazy it will help to bring on their language skills.Go back to the news stories