- Integrated understanding of speech and gestures
- Cultural influences on gesture and language developmental pathways
- Relationship between aphasia and gestures
Integrated understanding of speech and gestures
Children develop language, social and communicative competence in a multimodal environment. Adults around children interact with them by accompanying their speech with visual information such as facial expressions, gestures and eye contact. When and how do children start to understand the approach of such adults? The research is based on this question and experimentally clarifies the processing process and development of integrated understanding of gestures and speech in children, using behavioural and physiological measures.
Cultural influences on gesture and language developmental pathways
Children develop communication skills through interaction with adults and other children. In this process, children learn not only the content of expression (what to say) but also the style of expression (how to say it). The process of learning such skills is not uniform, and the way in which the surrounding environment influences this process, the nature of interaction and the communicative value of the mode of expression are considered to differ from culture to culture. Therefore, we are observing how the physical actions used in communication (e.g. nodding, denial, posture, gestures) are acquired and learnt in a variety of situations with Japanese children. In the future, we would like to compare our observations with those of cultures other than Japan and clarify the developmental pathways of communication that are unique to Japan.
Relationship between aphasia and gestures
I am researching the nature of communication in people with aphasia, and language therapy and assessment using various modalities. Many people with aphasia have difficulties with some of their spoken language functions, such as speaking and listening, but their communication and cognitive abilities are not impaired, and gestures are an important medium of information transmission that can be produced relatively easily. Therefore, together with speech-language pathologists, we are working on the relationship between aphasia symptoms and gestural patterns, and on the development of speech therapy and assessment using multimodal cues.
In addition to the above themes, I am also involved in applied research on the role of physical movements in sports and musical activities.