Research about gestures and learning

Making gestures with words helps children with and without hearing impairments improve their language, learning and cognitive skills, according to a recent study. Researchers suggest that gestures provide imagery to help children make categorical distinctions that comprise both spoken and signed language.
S. Goldin-Meadow. Widening the lens: what the manual modality reveals about language, learning and cognition. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2014; 369 (1651): 20130295 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2013.0295