- visual feedback/gaze sharing is not necessary to use gestures
- people blind from birth also show signs of commonly used gestures → although many gestures are conventionalized, this doesn’t seem to be a hard rule?
- although one might argue that, of course, blind people learn from their (seeing) environment which bodily movements are usually expected (nodding, headshake, shrugging etc)
- counterpoint: uV_G4LHB_NE?t=220
- Tommy Edison doesn’t know why people gesture! he says he doesn’t
- it’s funny to see him try though, holding up a bottle to his mouth to show “hey, you wanna get a beer after work”
- blind people also apparently gesture if they know others can’t see them
Literatur §
- originally stumbled upon this listening to Linghtusiasm and then reading: Blind people gesture (and why that’s kind of a big deal) by Lauren Gawne
- Bruce et al. Gestures Expressed by Children who are Congenitally Deaf-Blind: Topography, Rate, and Function
- Iverson, J., Goldin-Meadow, S. Why people gesture when they speak. Nature 396, 228 (1998). 24300
- Iverson J., Tencer H., Lany J., & Goldin-Meadow S. (2000). The relation between gesture and speech in congenitally blind and sighted language learners. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 24, 105–130.
- many more studies by Iverson