Narrative Development in Young Children
Gesture, Imagery, and Cohesion
Published on 13. May 2015
978-1-316-30895-0 (ISBN)
Description
As children begin to use language in early childhood, they produce increasingly large units of coherent speech, including narrative descriptions of events. This book examines the process of narrative development in young children, focusing on the development of 'cohesion' - the use of speech and gesture to create coherent perspectives on events. Surveying early narrative development in which gesture plays an integral part, the book explores the development of cohesive, clause-linking devices during the period from age two to three. Illustrated with longitudinal cases studies, the book examines the crib-talk of two-year-old Emily and compares it to the discourse patterns of storybooks and nursery rhymes, and to her father's pre-bedtime routines. In a second case study, the authors trace the changing relationships between speech and gesture in the spontaneous narratives of two-year-old Ella. This book will be invaluable to students and researchers in language acquisition, developmental psychology and gesture studies.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Cambridge University Press
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
34 Tables, black and white; 38 Halftones, unspecified
File size
3971,52 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-316-30895-0 (9781316308950)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
05/2015
Cambridge University Press
€127.50
Shipment within 15-20 days
Persons
Elena T. Levy is an Associate Professor in Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Connecticut. Her publications on narrative discourse include studies of typically developing children and adults, as well as individuals with autistic spectrum disorders. She is co-editor with Susan D. Duncan, Justine Cassell of Gesture and the Dynamic Dimension of Language (2007). David McNeill is Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Psychology and Linguistics at the University of Chicago. His publications include a 'trilogy' of gesture books, Hand and Mind (1992), Gesture and Thought (2005) and How Language Began: Gesture and Speech in Human Evolution (2012), plus an edited volume, Language and Gesture (2000).
Content
1. Toward an embodied account of narrative development; Part I. Narratives As Symbol Formation: 2. Narratives, cohesion and symbol formation; 3. Social and natural sources of change; Part II. Social Sources of Cohesion: 4. Social sources of cohesion - cohesive sources of coherence; 5. How early cohesion is grounded in enactment; Part III. Gestures, Cohesion, and Narrative Development: 6. Dual semiosis and the roots of cohesion; 7. Gestural sources of early cohesion - insights from Ella's stories; 8. Gestures, cohesion, and symbol formation; 9. Implications for children with autism; 10. The material carrier; Appendix 1. Transcription of Ella's speech and gestures; Appendix 2. Description of Rosie and Jim episodes (94 weeks; 23:00 on video).
