Developmental change of gesture pattern in children.

Research Project

Project/Area Number	20830085
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (Start-up)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Educational psychology
Research Institution	Wayo Women's University
Principal Investigator	OHGAMI Yuko Wayo Women's University, 人間・社会学系, 講師 (40452031)
Project Period (FY)	2008 – 2009
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2009)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,276,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,520,000、Indirect Cost: ¥756,000) Fiscal Year 2009: ¥1,508,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,160,000、Indirect Cost: ¥348,000) Fiscal Year 2008: ¥1,768,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,360,000、Indirect Cost: ¥408,000)
Keywords	身振り / 道具使用身振り / BPO(body-part-as-object) / 言語発達 / 幼児 / BPO
Research Abstract	Gesture pattern change during childhood. This study investigated whether this change was correlated to cognitive development (e.g., language ability, visuospacial ability) or not. Three experiments focused on tool-use-gestures. These gestures were changed from BPO(body-part-as-object) pattern to pantomime pattern, especially from four-year-old to five-year-old. The results raised possibility that the development of tool-use-gestures during childhood is supported by visuospatial ability, not languge ability.