According to Jarzynski (2013), gestures are a significant tool used to predict a child’s language. Gestures are an important indication of the child’s language learning path in that, when a child displays a gesture they are employing intentional communication, which is a stepping stone to verbal communication (Jarzynski, 2013). According to Jarzynski, an example of this is when a “nine-month-old child is reaching towards something he wants, while looking back at his mom”. The child is communicating even though they have yet to acquire speech. This desire to communicate is important to seeing that the child is on track to begin using his or her first words. Casasanto (n.d.) explains deictic gestures as gestures which “refer to objects or locations in physical or conceptual space”. Jarzynski explains that a child displays deictic gestures in cases where they are “showing an …show more content…
The first of these stages is the perlocutionary stage (Hulit et al., 2011, p. 146). This stage occurs approximately birth to eight months (Hulit et al., 2011, p. 146). During the perlocutionary stage, a child is mostly responding reflexively to his or her environment (Hulit et al., 2011, p. 146). The next stage, the illocutionary stage, occurs from eight to twelve months (Hulit et al. 2011, p. 146). During this eight to twelve months stage we can see the use of deictic gestures (Hulit et al., 2011, p. ). This is the stage in which a child begins to use gestures to communicate with his or her caregiver (Hulit et al., 2011, p. 146). The final stage, the locutionary stage, is the precursor to a child’s first words (Hulit et al., 2011, p. 146). This stage is approximately around the time of the child’s first birthday (Hulit et al., 2011, p. 146). From approximately 12 to 24 months, we can see representational gestures, these can appear alongside the the child’s first words (Jarzynski,