Research has shed some light on the way children learn to communicate, and may suggest that the youngest speakers have informed language itself.

A new study shows that when young children are communicating with hand gestures they break them into smaller units, like words in a sentence.

As we grow older, according to the study from the University of Warwick in the UK, our hand gestures come to represent more information at once.

In a paper published by the journal Psychological Science, a team examined how four-year-olds, 12-year-olds and adults used gestures to communicate in the absence of speech.

The study investigated the habit in their gesturing of breaking down complex information into simpler concepts, similar to the way that language expresses complex information by breaking it down into words.

Researchers showed the participants animations of motion events, depicting either a square or circle that moved up or down a slope in a particular manner such as jumping or rolling.

Each participant was asked to use their hands to mime the action they saw on the screen without speaking.

Researchers examined whether the path and type of motion were expressed simultaneously in a single gesture, or expressed in two separated gestures depicting its path or motions.

“Compared to the 12-year-olds and the adults, the four-year-olds showed the strongest tendencies to break down the manner of motion and the path of motion into two separate gestures,” Dr Sotaro Kita said.

“This means the four-year-olds miming was more language-like... Just as young children are good at learning languages, they also tend to make their communication look more like a language.”

“Previous studies of sign languages created by deaf children have shown that young children use gestures to segment information and to re-organise it into language-like sequences,” said co-author Dr Zanna Clay.

“We wanted to examine whether hearing children are also more likely to use gesture to communicate the features of an event in segmented ways when compared to adolescents and adults.”

The researchers say the study may show why languages of the world have universal properties.

“All languages of the world break down complex information into simpler units, like words, and express them one by one. This may be because all languages have been learned by, therefore shaped by, young children. In other words, generations of young children’s preference for communication may have shaped how languages look today,” Dr Kita added.melb uni cuts
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