Hand gestures are clearly not random movements; they are movements that often accompany the
spoken modality and are communicative devices. Gestures and spoken output often exhibit
semantic, pragmatic and temporal synchrony (McNeill, 1985; Kelly 2010). However, the role of
gestures during language production has not been well understood and gestures are often assigned
a compensatory role. This webinar will aim to discuss the types and the functions of hand gestures.

It will discuss the stages of development of gestures in children, and the nature of the gesture-
spoken language relationship in children and adults with or without communication impairments.

This seminar will educate the target audience of adult individuals who use AAC, families, and professionals who support AAC users on the barriers to employment for people who receive SSI and SSDI and how to address those barriers. The audience will hear from an AAC user on how working has affected her SSI benefits.