Get to the point: Preschoolers’ spontaneous gesture use during a cardinality task

Children's gesture use provides insight into proportional reasoning strategies

Children struggle with proportional reasoning when discrete countable information is available because they over-rely on this numerical information even when it leads to errors. In the current study, we investigated whether different types of gesture can exacerbate or mitigate these errors. Children aged 5-7 years (N = 135) were introduced to equivalent proportions using discrete gestures that highlighted separate parts, continuous gestures that highlighted continuous amounts, or no gesture. After training, children completed a proportional reasoning match-to-sample task where whole number information was occasionally pitted against proportional information. After the task, we measured children's own gesture use. Overall, we did not find condition differences in proportional reasoning; however, children who observed continuous gestures produced more continuous gestures than those who observed discrete gestures (and vice versa for discrete gestures). Moreover, producing fewer discrete gestures and more continuous gestures was associated with lower numerical interference on the match-to-sample task. Lastly, to further investigate individual differences, we found that children's inhibitory control and formal math knowledge were correlated with proportional reasoning in general but not with numerical interference in particular. Taken together, these findings highlight that children's own gestures may be a powerful window into the information they attend to during proportional reasoning.

Integrating Embodied Cognition and Information Processing: A Combined Model of the Role of Gesture in Children's Mathematical Environments

Children learn and use various strategies to solve math problems. One way children's math learning can be supported is through their use of and exposure to hand gestures. Children's self-produced gestures can reveal unique, math-relevant knowledge that is not contained in their speech. Additionally, these gestures can assist with their math learning and problem solving by supporting their cognitive processes, such as executive function. The gestures that children observe during math instructions are also linked to supporting cognition. Specifically, children are better able to learn, retain, and generalize knowledge about math when that information is presented within the gestures that accompany an instructor's speech. To date, no conceptual model provides an outline regarding how these gestures and the math environment are connected, nor how they may interact with children's underlying cognitive capacities such as their executive function. In this review, we propose a new model based on an integration of the information processing approach and theory of embodied cognition. We provide an in-depth review of the related literature and consider how prior research aligns with each link within the proposed model. Finally, we discuss the utility of the proposed model as it pertains to future research endeavors.

Give yourself a hand: The role of gesture and working memory in preschoolers' numerical knowledge

Hand gestures can be beneficial in math contexts to reduce the user's cognitive load by supporting domain-general abilities such as working memory. Although prior work has shown a strong relation between young children's early math performance and their general cognitive abilities, it is important to consider how children's working memory ability may relate to their use of spontaneous gesture as well as their math-specific abilities. The current study examined how preschool-aged children's gesture use and working memory relate to their performance on an age-appropriate math task. Head Start preschoolers (N = 81) were videotaped while completing a modified version of the Give-N task to measure their cardinality understanding. Children also completed a forward word span task and a computerized Corsi Block task to assess their working memory. The results showed that children's spontaneous gesture use and working memory were related to their performance on the cardinality task. However, children's gestures were not significantly related to working memory after controlling for age. Findings suggest that young children from low-income backgrounds use gestures during math contexts in similar ways to preschoolers from higher-income backgrounds.