Deconstructing language development: A commentary on Karadöller, Sümer and Özyürek

Karadöller and colleagues propose an interesting analysis of multimodality in spoken and signed language acquisition. In this commentary, we aim to extend the authors’ approach and abandon speech-centred and brainbound perspectives. By considering multimodality as a collage of multiple skills, in which abilities are acquired and exploited with new purposes, we will avoid integrating gestures and signs into pre-existent speech-centred models. This will enable us to move confidently into a future in which embodied dynamic interactions between skills and contexts are analysed in their ability to broaden the child’s world beyond the here and now and mould the language surge.