Hand gestures and how they help children learn

Clough, S., & Hilverman, C. (2018). Hand gestures and how they help children learn. Frontiers for Young Minds, 6: 29. doi:10.3389/frym.2018.00029.
When we talk, we often make hand movements called gestures at the same time. Although just about everyone gestures when they talk, we usually do not even notice the gestures. Our hand gestures play an important role in helping us learn and remember! When we see other people gesturing when they talk—or when we gesture when we talk ourselves—we are more likely to remember the information being talked about than if gestures were not involved. Our hand gestures can even indicate when we are ready to learn new things! In this article, we explain how gestures can help learning. To investigate this, we studied children learning a new mathematical concept called equivalence. We hope that this article will help you notice when you, your friends and family, and your teachers are gesturing, and that it will help you understand how those gestures can help people learn.
Publication type
Journal article
Publication date
2018

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