Gestural Literacy in the Prereading Stage: Physical Expressions of Meaning For children who are reared by deaf parents or those who have a disability that will interfere with oral language development, gesture is essential to literacy acquisition. The features of American Sign Language (ASL)—that is, its vocabulary and grammar—develop in much the same way as oral language does for hearing children. That is, children absorb the language used in their environment, and, given rich interaction with adults and siblings, develop a natural facility with the structure and use of the language that is then somewhat compromised by the introduction of metalinguistic awareness, as we noted in Chapter 5. It is a good thing for all children to learn a few signs as early as possible, for two reasons. First, young children understand more than they can say. Their receptive vocabulary (words they understand) is more advanced than their expressive vocabulary (words they can say), and motor development and gestural control precede the ability to produce verbal language, so sign language can serve as a bridge to prevent the frustration of not being understood. I remember when a friend called one day and asked me to teach her daughter the sign for "finished," because she had taken to clearing her high chair tray with a dramatic swoop when she didn't want any more food; mom was tired of cleaning cereal off the walls and ready for her daughter to have a more controlled communication option! A second reason for learning signs is that it adds to children's understanding that concepts, ideas, and emotions can be symbolized and expressed in multiple ways. Just as children learn that words and pictures can represent objects, activities, and emotions, they need to understand that gestures not only perform actions but also represent them. Several years later, then, they might read independently a passage like this from Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things: Then my dad opened the box. His whistling stopped. His breathing stopped. His feet stopped. Then he staggered backward. "WHAAAAAAAAAAT IS THIS?" he wailed. "Johnny Astro, what happened to you?" he cried. Then he really cried. He put his head in his hands, and his shoulders went up and down. (Look, 2008, pp. 90–91) With a strong sense of gestural literacy, children can get a true sense of just how upset Alvin's father is by the way he uses his body. When you stop whistling, you might be sort of upset. When your breathing stops and you stagger backward, it's much worse. But when you cry and your shoulders move up and down, you are not just a little upset; you are sobbing. Understanding that gestures communicate feelings and actions enables children to picture scenes as they read them and feel the emotions of the characters along with them. In fact, being able to read and understand the language of gestures is one of the strongest ways to create empathy, which is a crucial skill for buildin ...

1. Gestural Literacy in the Prereading Stage: Physical Expressions
of Meaning
For children who are reared by deaf parents or those who have a
disability that will interfere with oral language development,
gesture is essential to literacy acquisition. The features of
American Sign Language (ASL)—that is, its vocabulary and
grammar—develop in much the same way as oral language does
for hearing children. That is, children absorb the language used
in their environment, and, given rich interaction with adults and
siblings, develop a natural facility with the structure and use of
the language that is then somewhat compromised by the
introduction of metalinguistic awareness, as we noted in
Chapter 5.
It is a good thing for all children to learn a few signs as early as
possible, for two reasons. First, young children understand more
than they can say. Their receptive vocabulary (words they
understand) is more advanced than their expressive vocabulary
(words they can say), and motor development and gestural
control precede the ability to produce verbal language, so sign
language can serve as a bridge to prevent the frustration of not
being understood. I remember when a friend called one day and
asked me to teach her daughter the sign for "finished," because
she had taken to clearing her high chair tray with a dramatic
swoop when she didn't want any more food; mom was tired of
cleaning cereal off the walls and ready for her daughter to have
a more controlled communication option!
A second reason for learning signs is that it adds to children's
understanding that concepts, ideas, and emotions can be
symbolized and expressed in multiple ways. Just as children
learn that words and pictures can represent objects, activities,
and emotions, they need to understand that gestures not only

2. perform actions but also represent them. Several years later,
then, they might read independently a passage like this from
Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things:
Then my dad opened the box.
His whistling stopped.
His breathing stopped.
His feet stopped.
Then he staggered backward.
"WHAAAAAAAAAAT IS THIS?" he wailed. "Johnny Astro,
what happened to you?" he cried.
Then he really cried. He put his head in his hands, and his
shoulders went up and down. (Look, 2008, pp. 90–91)
With a strong sense of gestural literacy, children can get a true
sense of just how upset Alvin's father is by the way he uses his
body. When you stop whistling, you might be sort of upset.
When your breathing stops and you stagger backward, it's much
worse. But when you cry and your shoulders move up and down,
you are not just a little upset; you are sobbing. Understanding
that gestures communicate feelings and actions enables children
to picture scenes as they read them and feel the emotions of the
characters along with them. In fact, being able to read and
understand the language of gestures is one of the strongest ways
to create empathy, which is a crucial skill for building
relationships and developing personal character as well as
becoming a strong reader (Keen, 2010).
There are many books on sign language for babies readily
available in the child care section of the bookstore, but the most

3. useful signs to begin with are the ones for "eat," "more," and
"finished." Useful, everyday signs can be found at this website
by clicking on the dictionary and typing in the word you want:
http://lifeprint.com/. Teaching sign language to babies is
accomplished simply by accompanying the activity itself and
your verbal expression of the word with the sign every time you
use it. Interestingly, studies have shown that early signing
actually improves verbal fluency when children do begin to
speak, possibly because they have been using an accessible form
of expressive communication all along.
Learning the Meanings of Facial Expressions and Body
Movements
Gestural literacy is not limited to signing. In fact, we all use
gestures as a natural part of our communication; facial
expression, hand gestures, eye movements, nods and head
shaking or tilting are all gestures that are integral to
communicating our meaning. As children grow in their social
environment, they learn to read and reproduce these gestures.
They also have to learn what gestures and body movements are
socially appropriate in various settings. As with language
development, adults and siblings provide models, direct
instruction, and feedback during the learning process, and
children test their gestures and adapt them according to the
responses they receive.
Gestural literacy is important when it comes to understanding
visual information and making inferences from print texts. For
instance, in Anthony Browne's How Do You Feel? (2011), the
character demonstrates a range of feelings. In each picture,
Browne changes the colors, body postures, and size of the
character to provide a visual representation of a feeling. For
instance, when the character is happy, the colors are bright with
high contrast, and the character is shown in a wide-legged,
open-armed stance. The pocket on his overalls is even shaped
into a smile with buttons for eyes. By contrast, when the

4. character is scared, his pant legs are outlined with jiggly lines,
and his arms are pulled close to his body. These body postures
and colors, accompanied by a word that describes the feeling,
produce a montage that forms an association and creates
meaning. When I am happy, I feel expansive, wide open, and
big; but when I am scared, I feel small, closed in, and shaky.
Learning these codes of visual and gestural style is both a
biological and a social achievement. It's biological because our
bodies respond to situations in physical ways. For instance,
when we have to give a performance, many of us experience
stage fright. We literally shake with fear. This is because our
muscles want to contract—to regress into a fetal position that
protects our body from perceived outside threats. When we
force them not to do this, the muscles contract involuntarily
with the effort, and we shake as a result. When children are
extremely happy, they are likely to express it physically by
jumping up and down, which is another way to release nervous
energy.
Learning these visual and gestural codes is also a social and
cultural achievement because we mirror postures that we see as
expressing meaning. Two-year-olds mug for the camera in
specific ways because they have learned the codes of picture-
taking from watching others and looking at pictures. Children
pretending to be monsters do so in very stylized and remarkably
similar ways, considering that monsters are imaginary and thus
could take on any number of postures. So gestural style is a
combination of innate and learned behaviors, and these
behaviors assist literacy development in two ways: (a) by being
an expression of meaning all by themselves, and (b) by enabling
children to infer meaning from the suggestion of gestures in
print and visual representations.
Gesture's Role in Establishing Rituals

5. Another crucial aspect of gestural literacy is its role in creating
a sense of ritual. So much of human activity takes place in a
ritual format—domestic habits of dining together and preparing
for bed, waiting in line, communal gathering and listening,
playing on teams, going to church—that much of parenting and
schooling involves teaching children to participate in and adjust
to the patterns of ritual behavior. In ritual, we must attune our
bodies to others participating in the ritual activity. This creates
a sense of community and helps soothe anxiety, because our
own emotional states are regulated, mirrored, and affirmed by
the presence of others sharing those emotional states.
Parents, caregivers, and educators facilitate participation in
rituals by teaching young children songs, chants, and action
rhymes; by establishing a time and place for reading; and by
adopting a reading voice (which is noticeably different from a
getting-ready voice or a playing voice or a I've-just-about-had-it
voice). These special uses of gesture and language require that
children adjust their movements, rhythms, and volume so that
they are in step with others, or in the case of personal rituals, in
step with a preestablished pattern. Researchers believe that this
attunement is one of the reasons why we engage in ritual in the
first place, because it relieves stress by regulating our bodies
and hearkening back to the sense of communicative musicality
and connectedness we felt with our early caregivers
(Dissanayake, 2009; Eckerdal&Merker, 2009).
One of the most important aspects of the ritual of reading
together is the development of joint attention, as we discussed
in Chapter 1. Joint attention is facilitated by pointing, which,
surprisingly enough, is a gesture most babies can do very early,
although parents don't likely recognize it until they are looking
for it. But pointing is essential for the development of language
as well as other aspects of literacy development, such as
learning that things can be represented in different ways. For
instance, pointing to a picture of a baby's nose while saying

6. "nose" and touching the baby's nose, encodes three registers—
the image, the sound, and the touch—for the concept of nose.
Soon enough, the baby will come to realize that the sound
"nose" refers to a picture of noses and the baby's own nose, and
this will set the stage for understanding that the letters n-o-s-e
are yet another way of referring to the same concept.
Goals, Methods, and Materials for Promoting Gestural Literacy
Because children are natural mimics, gestural literacy can be
modeled, pointed out, and discussed, rather than taught through
direct instruction. Most well-illustrated storybooks that feature
characters offer an opportunity to discuss gestures and what
they look like. The most explicit instruction for the children's
own gestural literacy will likely come through negative
feedback, where children are told not to behave in a certain way
in a certain place or time. In most settings, though, children will
take on the behaviors of those around them. For instance, if
children sit with their parents in church, they will eventually
learn to sit and stand at the appropriate times, sing when others
sing, and remain quiet when others are quiet. A similar pattern
of routines develops in classrooms as well.
It is important, though, that gestural literacy be intentionally
used to enhance communication and ritual behavior. This is
where dramatic play comes in. Acting out stories is not only
great fun but it helps develop cooperative behaviors and
planning skills; and it encourages literacy skills such as
fluency, character understanding, and story arcs.
Teaching Ideas: Gestural Literacy
Reading Aloud
Overemphasize your own gestures when reading or telling a
story—be a ham!
When reading, point to objects and encourage children to point
so that they can develop the skill of shared attention.

7. Talk about pictures of characters in books. Ask how the
character is feeling and how the children know how he is
feeling from the picture.
Have children imitate the gesture of a character in a book, and
ask how they feel while they are doing it. Remind them that this
is how the character must feel as well.
Games, Action Rhymes, and Finger Plays
Increase your repertoire of action rhymes and finger plays to
teach to children. The upcoming list "Recommended Books:
Professional Resources for Storytimes and Action Rhymes"
suggests a few sources.
Play Feelings Charades: Whisper a feeling to a child and have
that child act out that feeling while the other children guess
what the feeling is. Alternately, have them act out an action,
such as eating an apple or swimming. Later in the year, once
you have shared many books with them, have them act out a
character from a book you have read.
Play the Pass-It-On game: Arrange children in a circle. Have
them pass an imaginary object from one person to another,
imagining how it would feel—a hot potato, a baby, a porcupine,
a heavy object. When each child has had a turn passing the
object, call out, or have the children call out, a new object to
pass.
Play the Mirror game: Divide children up in pairs. One of each
pair is the mirror. The mirror has to imitate the actions and
expressions of the partner. After a few minutes, have children
switch roles.
Dance and Drama
Have free dance time every day. Use different types of music,
and make sure you join in the dancing. Don't worry about
looking silly.
Invite community dancers in to demonstrate and teach their
skills. Alternately, call a dance school and ask if you can visit
the studio. Dance schools will often offer a free class for a day
care since they are usually not busy during the day.
Stage a play. This may seem ambitious, but it's really quite

8. doable for preschoolers. Have the children choose a story, and
then decide what characters, costumes, and props they will
need. Ask for volunteers for parts. Since they are not yet
readers, you may choose to narrate, or the children could
provide their own dialogue. Practice, practice, practice, and
encourage them to reflect on and critique their performance,
thinking about how they could make it better. Then invite
parents in for the performance!
Photo Book of Facial Expressions
Have children make a list of emotions: surprise, anger,
happiness, sadness, confusion, etc. Then have them experiment
with making faces to show these emotions. Take digital photos
of their faces making the expressions, and put them in a book.
Coats, K. (2013). Children’s literature & the developing
reader [Electronic version]. Retrieved from
https://content.ashford.edu/
P1-3AP1-3A Prepare an income statement, retained earnings
statement and balance sheet; discuss resultsOn June 1, 2017,
Elite Service Co. was started with an initial investment in the
company of $22,100 cash.Here are the assets, liabilities, and
common stock of the company at June 30, 2017, and the
revenues andexpenses for the month of June, its first month of
operations:NameCash$4,600Notes payable$12,000Accounts
receivable4,000Accounts payable500Service
revenue7,500Supplies expense1,000Supplies2,400Maintenance
and repairs expense600Advertising expense400Utilities
expense300Equipment26,000Salaries and wages
expense1,400Common Stock22,100In June, the company issued
no additional stock but paid dividends of
$1,400.Instructions(a)Prepare an income statement and retained
earnings statement for the month of June and a balance sheetat
June 30, 2017.(b)Briefly discuss in a Word document whether
the company's first month of operations was a success.(c

9. )Discuss in a Word document the company's decision to
distribute a dividend.NOTE: Enter a number in cells requesting
a value; enter either a number or a formula in cells with a "?"
.Please do not use these columns as I will use them when I
grade your assignment(a)ELITE SERVICE CO.In addition,
please do not use the red font as I use it when I am
gradingIncome StatementFor the Month Ended June 30,
2017Revenues Service revenueValueExpenses Salaries and
wages expenseValue Supplies expenseValue Maintenance
and repairs expenseValue Advertising expenseValue
Utilities expenseValue Total expenses?Net income?ELITE
SERVICE CO.Retained Earnings StatementFor the Month Ended
June 30, 2017Retained earnings, June 1ValueAdd: Net
incomeValue?Less: DividendsValueRetained earnings, June
30?ELITE SERVICE CO.Balance SheetJune 30,
2017AssetsCashValueAccounts
receivableValueSuppliesValueEquipmentValueTotal
assets?Liabilities and Stockholders' EquityLiabilities Accounts
payableValue Notes payableValue Total
liabilities?Stockholders' equity Common stockValue
Retained earningsValueValueTotal liabilities and stockholders'
equity?(b)Briefly address in a Word document whether the
company'sfirst month of operations was a success.(c)Discuss in
a Word document the company's decision to distributea
dividend.