Dr. Susan J. Goldin-Meadow is currently the Irving B Harris Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago. She is also on the Board of Directors at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. Dr. Goldin-Meadow received her B.A. from Smith College and then went on to earn her M.A. and Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Goldin-Meadow is a member of several academic societies including the American Psychological Society in which she is a fellow, the American Psychological Association in which she is a fellow, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Speech and Hearing Association, the Society for Research in Child Development and the Linguistic Society of America. Dr. Goldin-Meadow is President Elect (2001-2003) of the Cognitive Development Society; she will serve as President 2003-2005. Dr. Goldin-Meadow serves on the Board of Advisors of the Jean Piaget Society and is a member of the editorial boards of Applied Psycholinguistics, Cognitive Development, and Gesture.

Dr. Goldin-Meadow has received a number of honors and awards during her career including the Burlington Northern Faculty Achievement Award for Graduate Teaching and Member at Large, Section on Linguistics and Language Science from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has received research funding from a number of sources including the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the March of Dimes, the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke Research, and most recently from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Dr. Goldin-Meadow is most recently interested in researching the communicative functions of gesturing in deaf children. She is interested in learning how young deaf children use both taught and self-invented hand gestures when communicating with parents, teachers, and each other.

Research Interests
It is commonly asked whether language is learned or innate. In Dr. Goldin-Meadow's research, she recasts the question so that it is amenable to investigation, asking which aspects of language development are more (or less) sensitive to linguistic and environmental input. She has been engaged in a research program to identify the properties of language whose development can withstand wide variations in learning conditions -- the "resilient" properties of language. Children who have not been exposed to conventional linguistic input are observed in order to determine which properties of language can be developed under one set of severely degraded input conditions. The subjects are deaf children with hearing losses so extensive that they cannot naturally acquire oral language, and are born to hearing parents who have not yet exposed them to a manual language. Under such inopportune conditions, one might expect no symbolic communication at all or, at the least, communication which is unlike conventional language. This turns out not to be the case. Dr. Goldin-Meadow has shown that, despite these impoverished language-learning conditions, American deaf children are able to develop gestural communication systems which are structured as are the early communication systems of children acquiring language from conventional language models. Her current work focuses on whether deaf children lacking conventional language models in another culture (a Chinese culture) can develop gesture systems that are similarly structured; that is, the focus is on the resilience of various properties of language in the face of wide cultural variation.

Another facet of Dr. Goldin-Meadow's work explores the spontaneous gestures that hearing adults and children produce as they speak. She has discovered that the thoughts conveyed through gesture often differ from thoughts conveyed through speech (that is, the gestures and speech mismatch). Mismatches of this sort are frequently found when a learner is ready to make progress in a task -- when he or she is "ready" to learn -- and provide insight into the mental processes that characterize the learner when in a transitional state. In her current research, Dr. Goldin-Meadow has been exploring the sources and consequences of such gesture-speech mismatches and their role during transitional periods in the acquisition of concepts. She has found, first, that the transitional state appears to be the source of gesture-speech mismatch. In a mismatch, two beliefs are simultaneously expressed on the same problem -- one in gesture and another in speech. She suggests that it is the simultaneous activation of multiple beliefs that characterizes the transitional knowledge state and creates gesture-speech mismatch. Second, she has begun to explore the potential role that gesture can play in effecting change. If gesture is "readable" not only by experimenters trained in gesture-coding, but also by ordinary listeners, the mismatch between gesture and speech could signal to the listener that the speaker is in a transitional state and thus ready to learn. We have explored the first step in this hypothesis, showing that adults are indeed able to glean substantive information from the gestures children produce. Thus, the spontaneous gestures children produce when communicating with adults could provide an observable index of the zone of proximal development, and thus provide a mechanism by which adults can calibrate their input to a child's level of understanding.

Recent Publications
Articles
Goldin-Meadow, S. & Mylander, C.  Spontaneous sign systems created by deaf children in two cultures.  Nature, 1998, 391, 279-281.

Iverson, J. M. & Goldin-Meadow, S (Eds.).  The nature and functions of gesture in children's communications, in the New Directions for Child Development series, No. 79, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998.

Gershkoff-Stowe, L. & Goldin-Meadow, S.  The role of a communication partner in the creation of a gestural language system.  In A. Greenhill, M. Hughes, H. Littlefield & H. Walsh (eds.), Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, Volume 1 (pp. 246-256).  Somerville , MA:  Cascadilla Press, 1998.

Garber, P., Alibali, M. W., & Goldin-Meadow, S.  Knowledge conveyed in gesture is not tied to the hands.  Child Development, 1998, 69, 75-84.

Goldin-Meadow.  The second tongue (Review of Tutorials in bilingualism:  Psycholinguistic perspectives edited by A.M.B. de Groot & J.F. Kroll).  American Scientist, 1998, 86, 486.

Iverson, J. M. & Goldin-Meadow, S.  Why people gesture as they speak.  Nature, 1998, 396, 228.

Goldin-Meadow, S. & Sandhofer, C. M.  Gesture conveys substantive information about a child's thoughts to ordinary listeners.  Developmental Science, 1999, 2, 67-74.

Goldin-Meadow, S.  What children contribute to language learning.  Science Progress, 1999, 82. 89-102.

Alibali, M. W., Bassok, M., Solomon, K. O., Syc, S. E., & Goldin-Meadow, S.  Illuminating mental representations through speech and gesture.  Psychological Science, 1999, 10, 327-333.

Goldin-Meadow, S., & Alibali, M. W.  Does the hand reflect implicit knowledge?  Yes and no.  Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1999, 22, 766-7. 

Goldin-Meadow, S.  The role of gesture in communication and thinking.  Trends in Cognitive Science, 1999, 3, 419-429.

Goldin-Meadow, S., Kim, S., & Singer, M.  What the teacher's hands tell the student's mind about math.  Journal of Educational Psychology, 1999, 91, 720-730.

Goldin-Meadow, S.  Beyond words:  The importance of gesture to researchers and learners.  Child Development (Special Issue:  New Direction for Child Development in the Twenty-First Century), 2000,  71, 231-139.

Goldin-Meadow, S., & Saltzman, J.   The cultural bounds of maternal accommodation:  How Chinese and American mothers communicate with deaf and hearing children.  Psychological Science, 2000, 11, 311-318.

Iverson, J. M., Tencer, H. L., Lany, J., & Goldin-Meadow, S.  The relation between gesture and speech in congenitally blind and sighted language-learners.  Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 2000, 24, 105-130.

Iverson, J. M., & Goldin-Meadow, S.  The resilience of gesture in talk:  Gesture in blind speakers and listeners.  Developmental Science, 2001, 4, 416-422.

Phillips, S.B.V.D., Goldin-Meadow, S., & Miller, P.J. Enacting stories, seeing worlds:  Similarities and differences in the cross-cultural narrative development of linguistically isolated deaf children, Human Development, 2001, 44, 311-336. 

Goldin-Meadow, S. & Mayberry, R. How do profoundly deaf children learn to read? Learning Disabilities Research and Practice (Special issue: Emergent and early literacy: Current status and research directions), 2001, 16, 221-228.

Goldin-Meadow, S., Nusbaum, H., Kelly, S., & Wagner, S. Explaining math: Gesturing lightens the load. Psychological Science, 2001, 12, 516-522.

Goldin-Meadow, S.  Gesture. Encyclopedia of cognitive science.  London:  Macmillan Reference Ltd, in press.

Goldin-Meadow, S. The two faces of gesture. Proceedings of the Berkeley Linguistic Society, in press.

Goldin-Meadow, S. (2002). Constructing communication by hand. Cognitive Development, 17, 1385-1406.

Kelly, S.D., Singer, M.A., Hicks, J., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2002). A helping hand in assessing children's knowledge: Instructing adults to attend to gesture. Cognition and Instruction, 20, 1-26.

Gershkoff-Stowe, L. & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2002). Is there a natural order for expressing semantic relations? Cognitive Psychology, 45(3), 375-412.

Zheng, M. & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2002). Thought before language: How deaf and hearing children express motion events across cultures. Cognition, 85, 145-175.

Goldin-Meadow, S. & Singer, M.A. (2003). From children's hands to adults' ears: Gesture's role in teaching and learning. Developmental Psychology, 39(3), 509-520.

Goldin-Meadow, S., Nusbaum, H., Kelly, S., & Wagner, S.  Gesturing enhances working memory.  Under review.

Kelly, S. D., & Goldin-Meadow, S.  A helping hand in assessing children's knowledge:  Instructing adults to attend to gesture.  Under review.

Books and Book Chapters
Iverson, J.M. & Goldin-Meadow, S. (Eds.) (1998). The nature and functions of gesture in children's communications, in the New Directions for Child Development series, No. 79, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Goldin-Meadow, S. (1998). The development of gesture and speech as an integrated system.  In J.M. Iverson & S. Goldin-Meadow (Eds.), The nature and functions of gesture in children's communications (pp. 29-42), in the New Directions for Child Development series, No. 79, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Goldin-Meadow, S. & Zheng, Ming-Yu. (1998). Thought before language:  The expression of motion events prior to the impact of a conventional language model.  In P. Carruthers and J. Boucher (Eds.), Language and thought:  Interdisciplinary essays, (pp. 26-54).  New York:  Cambridge University Press.

Goldin-Meadow, S. & McNeill, D. (1999). The role of gesture and mimetic representation in making language the province of speech.  In M. C. Corballis & S. Lea (Eds.), The descent of mind, (pp. 155-172).  Oxford:  Oxford University Press.

Phillips, S. B., Goldin-Meadow, S., & Miller, P. (1999). Narrative development without submersion in a native language.  In A. Greenhill, H. Littlefield & C. Tano (Eds.), Proceedings of the 23rd Boston University Conference on Language Development, Volume 2 (pp. 565-574).  Somerville, MA:  Cascadilla Press.

Goldin-Meadow, S. (1999). The development of gesture with and without speech in hearing and deaf children.  In L. Messing & R. Campbell (Eds.), Gesture, speech and sign, (pp. 117-132). Oxford:  Oxford University Press.

Butcher, C., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2000). Gesture and the transition from one- to two-word speech:  When hand and mouth come together.  In D. McNeill (Ed.), Language and gesture, (pp. 235-257).  N.Y.:  Cambridge University Press.

Goldin-Meadow, S., Yalabik, E., & Gershkoff-Stowe, L. (2000). The resilience of ergative structure in language created by children and by adults.  In S. C. Howell, S. A. Fish, & T. Keith-Lucas (Eds.), Proceedings of the 24th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, vol. 1 (pp. 343-353).  Somerville , MA:  Cascadilla Press.

Goldin-Meadow, S.  Language development, syntax, and communication.  In A. E. Kazdin (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Psychology, Volume 4, (pp.482-488).  N.Y.:  Oxford University Press.

Goldin-Meadow, S. (2000). Learning with and without a helping hand.  In B. Landau, J. Sabini, J. Jonides & E. L. Newport (Eds.).  Perception, cognition, and language:  Essays in honor of Henry and Lila Gleitman (pp. 121-137).  Cambridge:  MIT Press.

Morford, J. P. & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2001). Time and again:  Displaced reference in the communication of linguistic isolates.  In G. Gyori (Ed.), Language evolution:  Biological, linguistic and philosophical perspectives, (pp. 173-197).  Frankfurt:  Peter Lang Verlag.

Goldin-Meadow, S. (2001). Giving the mind a hand:  The role of gesture in cognitive change.  In J. McClelland & R. S. Siegler (Eds.), Mechanisms of cognitive development:  Behavioral and neural perspectives, (pp. 5-31).  Mahwah, N.J.:  Earlbaum Associates.

Schulman, B.W., Mylander, C., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2001). Ergative structure at sentence and discourse levels in a self-generated communication system. In A. H.-J. Do, L. Dominguez, & A. Johansen (Eds.), Proceedings of the 25th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, vol. 2 (pp. 815-824). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

Hammond, A.J. & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2002). The robustness of non-English sequences in created gesture systems. In B. Skarabela, S. Fish, & A. H-J. Do (Eds.), Proceedings of the 26th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, Volume 1, (pp. 278-289). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

Goldin-Meadow, S. (2002). Getting a handle on language creation. In T. Giron & B. Malle (Eds.), Typological Studies in Language Series, (pp. 341-372). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Goldin-Meadow, S. (2002). From thought to hand:  Structured and unstructured communication outside of conventional language.  In J. Byrnes & E. Amsel (Eds.), Language, literacy, and cognitive development, (pp. 121-150).  Mahwah, N.J.:   Earlbaum Associates.

Goldin-Meadow, S. & Alibali, M. W. (2002). Looking at the hands through time:  A microgenetic perspective on learning and instruction.  In N. Granott & J. Parziale (Eds.), Microdevelopment:  Transition processes in development and learning, (pp. 85-107).  N.Y.:  Cambridge University Press.

Goldin-Meadow, S. & Butcher, C. (2003). Pointing toward two-word speech in young children.  In S. Kita (Ed.), Pointing:  Where language, culture, and cognition meet, (pp. 85-107).  N.J.: Earlbaum Associates.

Goldin-Meadow, S. (in press). Lexical development without a language model.  To appear in G. Hall & S. Waxman (Eds.), Weaving a lexicon, Cambridge, MA:  MIT Press.

Goldin-Meadow, S. (in press). Gesture in social interaction: A mechanism for cognitive change. To appear in C. Tamis-Lemonda & B. Homer (Eds.), The development of social cognition and communication. Mahwah, NJ: Earlbaum.

Selected Courses
Psychology - Introduction to Language Acquisition
Psychology - Communicative Uses of Nonverbal Behavior
Social Science - Mind
Psychology - Language and Thought: A Developmental Perspective
Psychology - Research Methods in Language Acquisition