A Comparison Of Coverbal Gesture Use In Oral Discourse Among Speakers With Fluent And Nonfluent Aphasia

Abstract

Purpose: Coverbal gesture use, which is affected by the presence and degree of aphasia, can be culturally specific. The purpose of this study was to compare gesture use among Cantonese-speaking individuals: 23 neurologically healthy speakers, 23 speakers with fluent aphasia, and 21 speakers with nonfluent aphasia. Method: Multimedia data of discourse samples from these speakers were extracted from the Cantonese AphasiaBank. Gestures were independently annotated on their forms and functions to determine how gesturing rate and distribution of gestures differed across speaker groups. A multiple regression was conducted to determine the most predictive variable(s) for gesture-to-word ratio. Results: Although speakers with nonfluent aphasia gestured most frequently, the rate of gesture use in counterparts with fluent aphasia did not differ significantly from controls. Different patterns of gesture functions in the 3 speaker groups revealed that gesture plays a minor role in lexical retrieval whereas its role in enhancing communication dominates among the speakers with aphasia. The percentages of complete sentences and dysfluency strongly predicted the gesturing rate in aphasia. Conclusions: The current results supported the sketch model of language–gesture association. The relationship between gesture production and linguistic abilities and clinical implications for gesture-based language intervention for speakers with aphasia are also discussed.

Publication Date

1-1-2017

Publication Title

Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research

Volume

60

Issue

7

Number of Pages

2031-2046

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1044/2017_JSLHR-L-16-0093

Socpus ID

85023771536 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85023771536

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