1 . Gestures-such as pointing or waving-go hand in hand with a child's first words, and twins lag (滞后)behind single children in producing and using those gestures,two studies from Georgia State University psychology researchers show.
The lag in gesture among twins may be mostly due to lower parental input, Ozcaliskan said. It's likely that parents caring for twins engage in shorter conversations with their children, including gesturing less, because their attention is divided and their labor is doubled.However, parents of single children used a greater amount and diversity of gestures than parents of twins. Ozcaliskan said she had grown curious about gesture because it had not yet been studied among twins. We have already known that twins are initially at a disadvantage where language is concerned. Most of the time, these lags are within the normal range of differences, and nothing to worry about. Almost all children will catch up to each other by around age three and a half.
“However,there was almost nothing in research on gesturing among twins," Ozcaliskan said. Babies start using pointing around 10 months, a few months before they produce their first words. Gesture helps them convey what they can't yet communicate in speech and prepares the way for children's early words.
Twins sometimes develop their own systems of communication, even their own “twin language," which has also been shown to delay language acquisition. “Perhaps it also delays the use of gestures. Gesture and speech together form a closely integrated system in a child's development, and a child's first gestures often precede their first attempts at speech," Ozcaliskan said.
＂Gesture is a very powerful tool," she said. “Pay attention to your child's gestures, and then provide verbal(言语的） descriptions to help their language development, such as naming objects when children point to them."
1. What mainly causes twins to produce and use fewer gestures?| A．Reduced parental input. |
| B．Undivided parental attention. |
| C．Too much “twin language". |
| D．Slow language development. |
| A．count on |
| B．go with |
| C．come before |
| D．call up |
| A．When the child smiles, parents smile big smiles as well. |
| B．When the child makes a small mistake, parents ignore it. |
| C．When the child points to a doll, parents pass it to him or her quickly. |
| D．When the child points to a bottle, parents point to it, saying “bottle". |
| A．Twins fall behind single children in early gesturing. |
| B．Twins are at a disadvantage in language of a lifetime. |
| C．Enough research has been done on twins' gesturing. |
| D．Gestures prepare children for future development. |
