Paper Title: How sensorimotor interaction shapes and supports young children’s gestural communication around science

Author(s) and Year: Rhiannon L. Thomas Ja, Sara Price, Minna O. Nygren, and Esme Glauert; 2021

Journal: International Journal of Science Education (open access [link])

TL;DR: The authors of this study were interested in evaluating how children observe, describe, and explain a simple scientific phenomenon (in this case, a water table) to illustrate how gestures contribute to children’s understanding and communication. The children used gestures to substitute verbal descriptions and to recall scientific observations. The physical act of ‘doing’ science and recalling it through gestures contributed to their understanding of the scientific phenomena.

Why I chose this paper: I feel that children’s interest in science, and STEAM in general, should be cultivated to encourage them to think critically early and often. In my experience doing outreach and science demonstrations for elementary school children while I was in undergrad, children are so much smarter than we give them credit for, therefore, this paper sparked my interest.

Gestures are used to explain, express, and externalize ideas and they consist of more than hand-waving! Body language is an important type of non-verbal communication that can enhance whatever message is being communicated. Think of how important body language is when giving a presentation– eye contact and hand movements are recommended to engage with an audience. For young children who are still learning to express themselves through speech, gestures are an important tool to interact and engage with others. For this reason, the authors wanted to evaluate how pre-school children use gestures to communicate their sensorimotor actions during science activities.

The Background

Young Children Rely on Actions Rather than Speech

Early education is based on hands-on experience, as visual and sensory stimuli are key for children’s learning. Sensorimotor actions are related to the senses (e.g., sight, touch, sound, smell, and taste) and motor skills (e.g., crawling, grabbing, and moving). Sensorimotor learning allows children to understand cause and effect, therefore, contributing to their cognitive development. 

Young children (in this case, those younger than 5 years old) rely primarily on actions and gestures more than speech when communicating. There has been prior research that looked at science ‘thinking’ and learning by high schoolers and how speech and gestures play a role in explaining scientific concepts. However, the use of gestures in science communication has not been studied in younger children. The authors wanted to investigate pre-school children’s use of gesture and how it is linked to their experience and science communication. With this study, Thomas Ja et al. wanted to answer the following questions: What role does gesture play in pre-school children’s communication and ‘meaning-making? and What insights can this provide in their thinking?

The Methods

The authors observed 20 children aged 2-5 years old, and how they interacted with a water table and water toys–a familiar sensory activity to the children–with minimal adult supervision. The children were placed in pairs and the researchers’ observed them in stages. There was a preliminary conversation where children were asked about their everyday experiences related to water. These questions primed the children to start considering their relationship to water and scientific phenomena like volume displacement. Afterward, the children were placed at a water table with water play objects (e.g., a portable pump, tubes with water wheels, a T-shaped tube, and cups).

Caption: Two of the children who participated in this study are seen at the water table, interacting with it and the objects. Picture used under CC BY 4.0

Finally, the children were interviewed to evaluate how they described their actions at the water table when the physical resources were not available anymore. This was done by asking them questions like, “What happened when you poured water into a tube? Why did that happen?” These questions were a way to promote scientific thinking and sense-making. The researchers noted which spontaneous gestures (i.e., non-verbal behaviors accompanied by speech) were used, specifically those produced by their hands.

The Results

Re-Experiencing and Understanding

The children ‘talked’ about the activities and tools in different ways. This included re-enacting their actions, describing their observations verbally, and even using their “bodies as analogies.” Interestingly, there were moments when some of the children seemed to use gestures for their own benefit, instead of using them to converse. The children paused in descriptions and used gestures or bodily movements as a way to wade through their own thinking. The time the children spent re-enacting their past actions to themselves was important. When the children paused and took time for themselves during the interview stage to reflect, this allowed them to put their ideas in order and understand the actions they participated in. After observing these moments of reflection, the authors determined that the children’s thinking and communication was “grounded” in bodily experiences and gestures. 

Thomas Ja et al. propose that gestures are valuable for communication by pre-school children regarding science and critical thinking. Gesture was used as a tool to replace verbal description. It also allowed the children to “re-experience” their actions at the water table. The gestures used by the children differed in type as well as function (i.e., observational and causal explanations) during the post-interview interactions. This “re-experiencing” or re-enaction is highlighted as an important step in understanding.

The Impact

Direct and In-Person Engagement Is Key

Children need to have the opportunity to ‘do’ science in a bodily manner. For science communicators, this means that when teaching or communicating science to young children, interactive learning is essential. The ‘bodily’ action of performing the science and directly interacting with the water table and water toys allows the children to establish cause and effect connections. These connections help children develop observation and prediction skills, key steps of the scientific process. Another point the authors included was how digital interactive activities wouldn’t achieve the same engagement in children since it is not as apparent how the action of “pressing a button” on a screen can influence the flow of water or a pump. Directly and physically playing with the water table and toys gives the children context.

Additionally, based on Thomas Ja et al.’s observations, young children’s use of gestures allows them to parse through their thoughts and ideas. This was especially true for the children who took time for themselves to establish connections and reasoning. It is worth considering in the context of children’s science education: giving them space to percolate on what they observed and participated in can help them establish context and understanding of scientific concepts.

Finally, when science communicators approach and interact with pre-school children, it is important to understand the gestures they use when explaining and describing scientific phenomena. Using the evidence from this study and future research on this topic can help inform and improve interactive activities for children. Engaging with children and initiating conversations with them about science at an early age can foster their development and understanding of science.

Written by Mariella A. Mestres-Villanueva

Edited by Julianna Goenaga and Sarah Ferguson

Featured image credit: Jill Wellington, Pixabay