The development of four types of gesture (instrumental, expressive, enactive and deictic) was examined in relation to acts and vocalizations in two infants over the period when they were aged 10 to 21 months. Observations were made in their homes when they were playing and reading books with their mothers. The initial predominance of acts declined while gestures increased from 10 to 18 months. The gestural types differed in their time of emergence, frequency of use and the context in which they were used. Generally, there was a progressive increase in the coordination of gestures and vocalizations but differences were found in when and how often gestural types were accompanied by vocalizations. These vocalizations showed developmental changes from babbling and proto‐words to single and then multi‐word utterances. Initially, co‐occurring gesture and vocalization expressed the same meaning but as the two modes came to be used to express diverse meanings, more complex ideas were conveyed. During the period when the number and functional flexibility of the child's words are limited, gestures play an important role in enhancing communicative effectiveness. The establishment of an integrated, plurifunctional and increasingly conventional signalling system seems to provide a supportive framework for the acquisition of linguistic signals.
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Zinober et al. (1985) studied this question.