-month-old excitedly produced his "crocodile" gesture while being strolled through the shopping mall. Mom let him out of the stroller and he toddled back to the store they had just passed and pointed to the Izod insignias on the racks of mens shirts. 3. A 14-month-old was able to use his "hot" gesture (blowing hard) to let his mother know when food was too hot, when his bath water was too hot, and even when the sidewalk at the pool was too hot. Even these few examples provide tantalizing clues about the ways symbolic gesturing can facilitate and enrich interactions between parent and child. Clearly, our next challenge will be to systematically explore the socio-emotional effects of the gesturing experience. In the meantime, the good news from the present study is that parents need not worry about jeopardizing their childs vocal language development in order to take advantage of this easy alternative to words. In fact, these data demonstrate clearly that the symbolic gesturing experience seems to "jump start" verbal development. There is no reason, therefore, for parents not to simply relax and enjoy any and all symbolic gestures their baby acquires. ...
