Language and Gesture Laboratory

Welcome to our lab! We are a team of researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate students who are interested in investigating topics related to the role of gesture (spontaneous hand movement produced while speaking or thinking) plays in language and cognitive development, cognitive processes, and special education.

We address four main questions:

1) How does communication system emerge? Are there any linguistic elements in silent gestures (i.e., gestures produced without speech)?

2) How does gesture facilitate language production and acquisition of knowledge in both adults and children? For example, do gestures produced dysfluencies help speakers to continue their speech? Do gestures that show directions (index finger moves to the left) help a learner to remember route sequence?

3) How do children with special needs (especially Autism Spectrum Disorders) gesture different from their typically-developing peers? How do these differences tell us about gesture development and factors related to gesture production and comprehension?

4) How do children with Autism Spectrum Disorders benefit from the robot-based gestural intervention program? Are there any individual variations in the learning outcomes?

Research supported by

Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong