Pointing boosts toddlers' language skills

Encouraging toddlers to use hand gestures can improve their vocabulary and boost their chances of doing well at school a few years later, according to new research.Pointing and other hand signals seem to give babies a head start in learning language skills, possibly by helping them to make connections between words and the objects in the world around them, psychologists found.The research highlights how interacting with toddlers can have a marked impact on their brain development, even before they have started talking, the researchers said.Children are known to perform better at school if they have a large vocabulary when they start, but precisely why some are able to master more words than others before reaching school age has been hard to pin down. The parents' education plays a major role, because more-educated parents use a wider range of words, but psychologists suspected other factors were also important.Meredith Rowe and Susan...

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