Il gesto come risorsa biolinguistica

Research on the role played by gesture in language development have supported the hypothesis of a strong interconnection between language and movement (KIMURA 1981, MCNEILL 1992, PÜLVERMUELLER et al. 1996,IVERSON & THELEN 1999, BATES & FREDERIC 2002). Motor actions of hand and mouth are present from birth but this link becomes significant as a result of shared social meaning. In early infancy, hand-to-mouth behavior are extremely common in infants’ spontaneous movements and occur similarly both in hearing and deaf children (see FONTANA & VOLTERRA 2012 for a review). Furthermore, similar motor constraints have been found in the production of gestures and a correlation between first actions and gestures in hearing and deaf toddlers has been pointed out in early language development (GALLESE & LAKOFF 2005, CAPIRCI et al. 2005, PETTENATI et al. 2010). Action and gestures emerge as a biologicallink but soon acquire social meaning through action routines which establish and fix a convention (BATES 1979). Transition from gesture to language occurs through the semiotic relationship between the caregiver and the child. In other words, what activates language is the relationship between child and adult. It has its origins in the biological sociality of human nature (STERN 1985, 2010, Reddy 2010). As result of the child’s need of communication, gestures enable communication through relation and participation to social interactions and routines. The role of social interaction and relation with caregivers will be analyzed by referring also to the Theory of Embodied Simulation (GALLESE & SINIGAGLIA 2011) in order to show its importance in the transition from spontaneous movement to social and shared action and finally tothe onset of communication made of gestures and vocalizations.