Adults display cross-linguistic variability in their speech in how they package and order semantic elements of a motion event. These differences can also be found in speakers’ co-speech gestures (gesturing with speech), but not in their silent gestures (gesturing without speech). Here, we examine when in development children show the differences between co-speech gesture and silent gesture found in adults. We studied speech and gestures produced by 100 children learning English or Turkish (n = 50/language) – equally divided into 5 age-groups: 3–4, 5–6, 7–8, 9–10, and 11–12 years. Children were asked to describe three-dimensional spatial event scenes (e.g., a figure crawling across carpet) first with speech and then without speech using their hands. We focused on physical motion events that elicit, in adults, cross-linguistic differences in co-speech gesture and cross-linguistic similarities in silent gesture. We found the adult pattern even in the youngest children: (1) Language shaped co-speech gesture beginning at age 3 years, showing an early effect of language on thinking for speaking (as measured by gestures that occur during the speech act). (2) Language did not affect silent gesture at any age, highlighting early limits on the effects language has on thinking and revealing a language of gesture that shows similarities across languages.

成年人在如何包装和排序运动事件的语义元素方面表现出言语中的跨语言变异性。这些差异也可以在说话者的共同言语手势（用语音做手势）中找到，但在他们的沉默手势（没有说话的手势）中却找不到。在这里，我们研究了儿童在发育过程中何时表现出成人的共同讲话手势和沉默手势之间的差异。我们研究了 100 名学习英语或土耳其语的儿童（n  = 50/语言）的言语和手势——平均分为 5 个年龄组：3-4、5-6、7-8、9-10 和 11-12 岁。孩子们被要求先用言语描述三维空间事件场景（例如，一个人在地毯上爬行），然后用手描述没有言语的情况。我们关注的是在成年人中引起共同言语手势的跨语言差异和沉默手势的跨语言相似性的身体运动事件。我们甚至在最小的孩子中也发现了成人模式：（1）从 3 岁开始形成语言形成的共同言语手势，显示语言对言语思维的早期影响（通过言语行为期间发生的手势来衡量）。（2）语言在任何年龄都不会影响无声手势，这突显了语言对思维影响的早期限制，并揭示了手势语言在不同语言之间表现出相似性。