Patterns of communication in blind and sighted speakers
Speakers of all languages gesture, but there are differences in the gestures that they produce. Where do these language-specific differences in gesture come from? One possibility is that children learn to gesture in language-specific ways by watching others gesture. An alternative possibility is that children learn language-specific gestures simply by learning to speak a particular language. We examine this question by studying the gestures and speech produced by congenitally blind speakers in two cultures. If exposure to gesture is necessary to be able to gesture like a native speaker, congenitally blind speakers of different languages should all gesture alike since, under this hypothesis, they lack the input that would create differences in their gestures. If, on the other hand, children learn to be native gesturers by becoming native speakers, congenitally blind speakers of a given language should produce gestures similar to the gestures produced by sighted speakers of the same language. (PI with Susan Goldin-Meadow; funded by March of Dimes Foundation)
Representative publications:
Özçalışkan, Ş., Lucero, C., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2016). Is seeing gesture necessary to gesture like a native speaker? Psychological Science, 27(5), 73, 7-747. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797616629931
Özçalışkan, Ş., Lucero, C., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2016). Does language shape silent gesture? Cognition, 148, 10-18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2015.12.001
Özçalışkan, Ş., Lucero, C., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2018). Blind speakers show language-specific patterns in co-speech gesture but not silent gesture. Cognitive Science. 42(3), 1001-1014. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12502
Özçalışkan, Ş., Lucero, C. & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2024). Is vision necessary for the timely acquisition of language-specific patterns in co-speech gesture and their lack in silent gesture? Developmental Science. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13507
Gesture as a forerunner of linguistic change: insights from autism
Gesturing is an integral part of the process of language learning in typically developing (TD) children: TD children attain the gestural precursor to different linguistic milestones before reaching the same milestones in speech. In the proposed set of studies, we ask whether a similar developmental process is responsible for language acquisition in children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), as they transition into producing their first sentences, and later on, their first narratives and explanations. Given the reported difficulties children with ASD exhibit in gesture production at the early ages—followed by delays in later speech production, we ask whether the pattern of gesture-speech combinations leading the way to early sentences and later narratives/explanations is disrupted, or whether this language-learning process is so robust that children with ASD, like TD children, initially rely on gesture and speech together to convey their emerging language abilities. (PI, funded by NSF, NIH)
Representative publications: Özçalışkan, Ş., Dimitrova, N., & Adamson, L. B. (2016). Early deictic but not other gestures predict vocabulary in both typical development and autism. Autism. 20(6), 754-763. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361315605921
Özçalışkan, Ş., Adamson, L. B., Dimitrova, N., & Baumann, S. (2017). Early gesture provides a helping hand to spoken vocabulary development for children with autism, Down syndrome and typical development. Journal of Cognition and Development. 18(3), 325-337. https://doi.org/10.1080/15248372.2017.1329735
Özçalışkan, Ş., Adamson, L. B., Dimitrova, N., Baumann, S. (2018). Do parents gesture differently when children’s gestures differ?Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 48, 1492-1507. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3411-y
The role of gesture in video-learning for children with autism and with typical development
Instruction with video has been shown to play a positive role in learning for typically developing (TD) children, particularly when it is accompanied by gesture. In this study, we ask whether we can find evidence of a similar facilitative effect of video-learning with gesture in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), who show notable weaknesses in one-one-one interactions and spend more time on screen media than TD children. We examine this question by studying young children with ASD and TD children—comparable in language ability, gender, and family SES. We use an experimental paradigm that manipulates instruction type (video vs. in-person) and modality (gesture+speech, speech-only) in learning spatial concepts; we also test the broader effect of this manipulation on child spatial talk and gesture during parent-child interactions. (PI, funded by Spencer Foundation)
Role of early motor experience in infants with Down syndrome
Down syndrome (DS) is the most common genetic condition that causes intellectual disability and significant health challenges starting from the first year of life. Despite regular physical and occupational therapy, infants with DS show delayed attainment and lower performance of both gross motor (e.g., walking) and fine motor skills (e.g., grasping).Our goal is to understand the role of enhanced gross motor experience and the role of enhanced fine motor experience on the cognitive and language development of infants with DS. Our central hypothesis is that motor experience will not 
only improve motor development but also have a cascading effect on advancing cognitive and language development in infants with DS. (PI with Jianhua Wu; funded by NIH)
Gesturing with two languages at hand: How gesture reflects and facilitates second language learning
Languages differ in how they express basic events, such a motion, both in speech and in gesture. The project investigates how cross-linguistic differences in the encoding of such events influence multi-modal acquisition of language both in first language (L1) and second language (L2) acquisition contexts. (Co-investigator with Wojciech Lewandowski, PI; funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Germany)
Representative publications: Lewandowski, W. & Özçalışkan, Ş. (2023). Running across the mind or across the park: Does speech about physical and metaphorical motion go hand in hand? Cognitive Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2022.0077
Lewandowski, W. & Özçalışkan, Ş. (2024). Metaphorical events in translation: Does language type matter? Lingua, 298, 103654. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2023.103654
Motivation, iconicity, and arbitrariness in the processing of multimodal language
The project aims to examine the degree of interaction between iconicity and arbitrariness in language through the study of different types of motivation (iconic, conceptual and grammatical) and their possible impact on multimodal language processing in both native and second languages (Co-investigator with Iraide Antuñano, PI; funded by AEI Funds, Spain)
Funded mentored projects
Postdoctoral fellows
Effect of fluency on gesture and speech production in bilinguals with Dr. Himmet Saritas (funded by Turkish National Science Foundation)
Effect of language and modality in learning labels for actions with Dr. Murat Şengül (funded by Turkish National Science Foundation)
Multi-modal communicative development in sequential and simultaneous bilinguals with Dr. Kübra Şengül (funded by Turkish National Science Foundation)
Gesture comprehension in autism with Dr. Nevena Dimitrova (funded by Swiss National Science Foundation)
Effect of caregiver response to child gesture on language development with Dr. Nevena Dimitrova (funded by Swiss National Science Foundation)
Inter- and Intra-typological variation of macro events: the case of motion with Dr. Wojciech Lewandowski (funded by Danish Council & Marie Curie)
Graduate student dissertation projects
Multi-modal communication in early parent-child interactions: Effect of sex, play partner, and play context on speech and gesture production (E. Pinar; GSU Dissertation Award)
Are cartoons pointless? Patterns of speech and gesture production in children’s cartoons (S. Baumann; GSU Dissertation Award)
Patterns of gesture and speech production in adults with aphasia (S. Ozturk; Language & Literacy Fellowship )
Does gesture give bilingual children a hand with spatial vocabulary development? (V. Limia; Provost Dissertation Fellowship)
An Event-Related Brain Potential Study of Path- and Manner-Sensitivity and Motion Expression (S. Emerson; GSU Dissertation Award )
Developmental changes in children’s gestures about time in English (L. Stites; GSU Dissertation Award)
Graduate student MA projects