Iconicity scaffolds child language development

Event details

Iconicity refers to a property of a symbol such as words and gestures, in which the form resembles the meaning. For example, some words sound like what they mean (e.g., "meow", "splash"), and some gestures depict motion and action (e.g., a gesture enacting how one throws a ball).  Such iconic words and gestures can facilitate two aspects of language development: referentiality and engagement. First, iconicity helps children to learn words because it highlights the referent of a novel word and abstracts out irrelevant information in a complex scene.  This helps children not only to identify the referent of a novel word, but also generate more general knowledge about what words tend to refer to.  Second, iconicity in parental speech makes children more engaged in the parent-child interaction in a positive way.  Children tend to produce more words and gestures and they also tend to show positive affect more, when parental speech is iconic.  This creates a richer and positive learning opportunity for children. Thus, iconicity scaffolds children's language development in multiple ways.