Hearing Gesture - How Our Hands Help Us Think

This book explores how we move our hands when we talk, and what it means when we do so. Focusing on what we can discover about speakers--adults and children alike--by watching their hands, Goldin-Meadow discloses the active role that gesture plays in conversation and, more fundamentally, in thinking. In general, we are unaware of gesture, which occurs as an undercurrent alongside an acknowledged verbal exchange. This book makes clear why we must not ignore the background conversation.