Children with ASD tend to have more difficulties with gestures compared to children with TD, which is the group these studies have been completed on. How would gestures affect the teaching/learning capailities?

Grinnell College

Children who follow the directed gestures of a teacher when learning early math basics are more likely to perform higher on tests over those areas. Gestures in general, even ones not directly assisting the learning, are also correlated with increased performance - though not as high.

Gestures assist learning math

If gestures are ineffective ways of communicating information, there needs to be a different method for teaching children with ASD. 


-Teachers and parents need to be educated on ASD forms of communication so they can make adjustments to lessons or give clarrification as necessary. 


-Parents can verbalize whatever motion their child is doing for preverbal children, so that the gestures and words can be tied together.


-There can be praise when a child makes gestures to reinforce their use, and interventions to teach youth with ASD about co-speech gestures have been suggested. 

Educational implications of gesture development in ASD

Cook, S., Mitchell, Z. & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2008). Gesturing makes learning last. Cognition, 106(2), 1047-1058. 

Gesturing makes learning last

Goldin-Meadow, S., Cook, S., & Mitchell, Z. (2009). Gesturing gives children new ideas about math. Psychological Sciences, 20(3), 267-272. DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02297.x

Gesturing gives children new ideas about math

Pointing gestures to indicate area of the problem

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