Sigurd Pilesjö, M. (2014). Creating meaning through the coordination of gaze direction and arm/hand movement. Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders, 5(1), 63–96. https://doi.org/10.1558/jircd.v4i2.63
This study investigated the use of arm/hand movement and gaze direction for creating mutual understanding between a girl aged 10;4 years with severe speech, physical impairment and moderate intellectual disability due to cerebral palsy while engaging with the adults in her home and school environments. When positioned as a second pair part, meaning was created in a social act of pointing as the girl indexed a target in her environment by coordinating her use of gaze and arm movement. In the first pair part position, the girl was successful in accomplishing the social act of wanting, through her persistent and upgrading use of multimodal resources (i.e., vocalizations, arm movements, and gaze direction), in both the absence and presence of competing agendas of her communication partner. The communication partner ascribed meaning to these coordinated moves and the girl discontinued the coordination of embodied resources in the interaction at points which suggested the goals were reached.