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In:The Development of Prosody in First Language Acquisition
Edited by Pilar Prieto and Núria Esteve-Gibert
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 23] 2018
► pp. 103–124

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Chapter 6
Set in time

Temporal coordination of prosody and gesture in the development of spoken language production

 | Duquesne University
 | Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, LPL UMR 7309 | Universitat de Barcelona
Published online: 24 May 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.23.06rus
The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the relationship between prosody, gesture, and spoken language production from a developmental perspective. The coordination of prosody and manual movements from theoretical, behavioral and neuroanatomical perspectives will be explored. We focus on how gesture landmarks coordinate with prosodic prominence from infants to school-aged children, and we compare these results with adult patterns. The reviewed literature shows that gesture movements, prosody, and speech abilities in general, develop in a parallel and dynamic way, the emergence of a specific ability in one modality entraining the emergence of a parallel ability in another modality. Lastly, implications of the coordination of prosody and gesture for children with communication disorders will be explored.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Theoretical underpinnings
  • What does it mean to be temporally coordinated?
  • Developmental sequence of gestures
  • Temporal coordination of prosody and gesture in development
    • Vocal-motor entrainment in early infancy
    • Prosodic-gestural coordination in infancy and toddlerhood
    • The preschool years and beyond
  • Implications for children with speech sound disorders
  • Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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Prieto, Pilar, Núria Esteve-Gibert & Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel
2024. Towards a novel conceptualization of prosody that accounts for spoken and visual signals. Gesture 23:1-2 ► pp. 119 ff. DOI logo
Pouw, Wim & James A. Dixon
2019. Entrainment and Modulation of Gesture–Speech Synchrony Under Delayed Auditory Feedback. Cognitive Science 43:3 DOI logo
Esteve-Gibert, Núria & Bahia Guellaï
2018. Prosody in the Auditory and Visual Domains: A Developmental Perspective. Frontiers in Psychology 9 DOI logo

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