Gestos e holófrases no campo do autismo: um funcionamento linguístico-multimodal

Abstract

The language acquisition process, based on the multimodal perspective, can privilege a set of linguistic segments such as gestures, vocal productions, and facial expressions to promote meanings. With this work, we aim to analyze the relationship between gestures and holophrases of an autistic child in language acquisition. As specific objectives, we intend to describe the gestures and holophrases of an autistic child in interactive scenes; identify the types of gestures, and verify the roles that such gestures present integrated with holophrastic productions. The research is theoretically framed in the multimodal approach and starts from the studies of McNeill (1985, 1992, 2000), Kendon (1982, 1988, 2004), Barros (2013), Cavalcante (2018), and others. The article is a case study of a qualitative nature, the work was developed with a female autistic child; a participant of the study, and a reception group promoted by a community institution of higher education. The data were transcribed from the Eudico Language Annotator (ELAN) software. As a result of the study, we found that the autistic child produced different gestural dimensions associated with holophrases. The deictic gestures coupled with the utterances of a word presented roles of indicating the child's interest, in addition to favoring the interactive and enunciative construction, the iconic gesture also had the role of representing object. With this, we realize that holophrases and gestures can act as elements of language in the situations of interaction.