◎鄭寺音

Babies who use many gestures to communicate when they are 14 months-old have much larger vocabularies when they start school than those who don’t, U.S. researchers said.

美國研究人員說，使用許多手勢溝通的14個月大嬰兒，開始上學之後，字彙能力會比未使用手勢溝通者還強。

They said babies with wealthier, better-educated parents tend to gesture more and this may help explain why some children from low-income families fare less well in school.

他們說，父母較富裕、教育程度較高的嬰兒，比較會比手畫腳，這可能有助解釋來自低收入家庭的部分孩童，在校表現為何較差的原因。

Vocabulary is a key predictor of school success. Earlier research showed that well-off, educated parents tend to talk to their children more than their poorer, less-educated peers.

字彙是學校成就的重要指標，之前的研究顯示，富裕、受過教育的父母，會比較貧窮、教育程度較低的父母，還要常對小孩說話。

The researchers filmed 50 Chicago-area children and parents from diverse economic backgrounds and counted the number of gestures, such as pointing at a picture.

研究人員拍攝50名芝加哥地區不同經濟背景的孩童與父母，並計算像是手指向照片等手勢的次數。

The team found that 14-month-olds from high-income, well-educated families used gesture to convey an average of 24 different meanings during each 90-minute session, compared with 13 meanings conveyed by children from lower-income families.

研究團隊發現，來自高收入、教育程度高的家庭的14個月大嬰兒，在每90分鐘的時間裡，平均以手勢比出24種不同的意思；來自較低收入家庭的孩童，則是比出13種意思的手勢。

When the same children entered school at age four and a half, those from higher-income families had better vocabulary scores on standardized tests.

同樣的這群孩童在4歲半入學時，來自較高收入家庭者，標準測驗的字彙測驗成績較高。

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