Unlock Your Words: How Gestures Can Help with Word-Finding Difficulties
"Discover the surprising power of gestures in overcoming word retrieval challenges, both in aphasia and everyday communication."
Gestures are more than just hand movements; they are integral to how we communicate. While most agree that gestures enhance speech, some researchers argue they actively facilitate it, especially when we struggle to find the right words. This is particularly relevant for individuals with aphasia, a language disorder often resulting from stroke.
New research sheds light on the role of gestures in word-finding difficulties (WFD), both for people with aphasia (PWA) and neurologically healthy individuals (NHP). The study, conducted by Judith Kistner, Lucy T. Dipper, and Jane Marshall, explores how gestures accompany and potentially aid in resolving these communication breakdowns.
This article dives into the findings of this research, revealing how gestures function in conversation, their connection to WFD, and the implications for improving communication for everyone.
A Growing Evidence Base in Gesture Research
In November 2025, researchers published a dataset of 2373 annotated co-speech hand gestures, designed to facilitate in-depth analysis of human communication. That same season, the NEURAL Research Lab data set was introduced to improve the study of short-term variation in spoken language and co-speech gesture in persons with aphasia as well as cognitively healthy adults. The National Aphasia Association likewise maintains a statistics page summarizing aphasia prevalence, recovery rates, and the impact on individuals and families. Together, these resources give clinicians and researchers a growing evidence base for studying how gesture accompanies and supports speech.
Accepted Therapies and Their Limits
The standard, accepted approach to word-finding difficulties generally centers on speech-language therapy focused on word retrieval, cueing strategies, and repeated practice. In practice, clinicians commonly rely on spoken-language outcome measures, which may understate the contribution of non-verbal communication such as gesture. Evidence on the relative effectiveness of different methods is still evolving, and resources are understood to vary across settings. As a result, limitations in measurement and access remain practical constraints on what any single approach can achieve.
From Ancient Descriptions to Modern Models
Aphasia has been described since ancient times, with early medical documents and medieval attempts to understand the condition chronicled through to the turn of the 2000s. The discussions at the meetings of the Académie Impériale de Médecine in 1864 and 1865 are considered the climax of the early history of aphasia: speech disorders occurring without any paralysis of the tongue or other instrumental organs became uncontested facts, and aphasia was recognized as a syndrome of its own. Later theoretical models went further; one influential model predicted seven different aphasia syndromes while elaborating on motor and sensory aphasia, as well as conduction aphasia (Leitungsaphasie, according to Wernicke) caused by a lesion of the pathway connecting the two centers. Broader historical treatments are available in Tesak and Code (2008) and in Levelt's book "History of Psycholinguistics" (Levelt, 2014).
The Gesture-Word Connection: More Than Just Ornamentation?
The study analyzed spontaneous conversations of 20 PWA and 21 NHP, focusing on the production of semantically rich gestures (those conveying meaning, like iconics, metaphorics, pantomimes) and their relationship to speech. The researchers examined whether these gestures occurred more often during WFD and if they helped resolve those difficulties.
- Semantic Gestures: Gestures conveying information either alongside or independent of speech.
- Word-Finding Difficulty (WFD): Instances where participants struggled to retrieve words, indicated by pauses, circumlocutions, or semantic errors.
- Resolution: Whether the WFD was successfully resolved with the correct word.
- Co-occurrence: Whether gestures accompanied fluent speech, WFD, or occurred in the absence of speech.
Current Research Trends in Aphasia and Gesture
Recent work is expanding the evidence base on gesture in aphasia. At the 54th Clinical Aphasiology Conference in Albuquerque, NM (May 27–31, 2025), S. R. Devanga presented on coding interactional gestures in aphasia research and treatment. An American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology study (July 2024) asked whether patterns of speech and gesture production for individuals with aphasia vary by aphasia type and discourse type, and how they differ from adults without aphasia. A 2023 systematic review likewise assessed whether gesture improves the communication success of people with aphasia, while the National Aphasia Association continues to track research across topics such as brain recovery, language therapy, and assistive technology.
Mixed Evidence and Lingering Questions
Despite enthusiasm for gesture-based approaches, the evidence is mixed. A 2021 study of three male patients with stroke-induced severe chronic aphasia, non-functional perseverative speech, and severe associated impairments tested both a passive gesture intervention, in which participants watched movies selected for their intensive use of gesture, and an active gesture intervention in which they practiced gestures themselves. A 2023 systematic review similarly notes that the extent to which gesture is able to compensate for verbal-linguistic limitations in aphasia is unclear. At the same time, research on the integrity and function of gestures in aphasia supports the view of separate but interrelated systems, since speech problems do not necessarily cause gesture problems and gestures often signal upcoming speech. More broadly, gestures are understood to have external (communicative) and internal (speaker) functions, with hypotheses suggesting they can assist communication, support word retrieval, and help frame thoughts for language.
Comparing Gesture Use Across Speaker Groups
Comparative research asks how aphasia changes gesture use. One line of analysis compares the gestural production of people with fluent or non-fluent aphasia against the gestures performed by speakers not suffering from any language disorder. Other studies compare the communication success of people with aphasia and non-aphasic control participants to determine the impact of aphasia on gesture. Still others assess communication success when the person with aphasia does and does not use gesture, to isolate the contribution of gesture itself.
Gestures as Communication Tools: Practical Takeaways
This research highlights the power of gesture, in everyday communication. By being more aware of our gestures and encouraging their use, we can potentially enhance our communication skills.
A Developing Consensus on Gesture
Taken together, current work increasingly treats gesture as intertwined with language rather than a mere accessory, serving both communicative and cognitive roles. Some lines of evidence suggest gesture can support word retrieval and communication in aphasia, while others caution that its compensatory value is not always clear. Expert commentary tends to frame gesture as a promising complement to spoken-language therapy rather than a replacement for it. Given ongoing debates and early-stage findings, conclusions remain appropriately cautious and provisional.
New Frontiers in Aphasia Treatment
A June 2025 bibliometric study in Frontiers in Neurology maps post-stroke aphasia research from 2004 to 2024, providing empirical mapping of current research landscapes and actionable insights for future investigations. Commentary in Frontiers in Psychology anticipates a paradigm shift in aphasia care that addresses the underlying neurological basis of the condition while leveraging the contributions of behavioral therapies, including for linguistically diverse populations. An innovative-use-of-technology issue (published June 2024) gathers research on technology in assessment and treatment, social interactions including peer support, and practical applications affecting everyday lives. Researchers are additionally exploring co-speech hand gestures as treatment targets, motivated by the observation that conversational treatment outcome measures continue to rely on spoken language alone.
Equity and Access in Aphasia Care
Equity remains a major challenge in aphasia care for stroke survivors. A study on improving equity of aphasia care (published September 2026 in Aphasiology) reports that its Phase 3 identified multiple potential solutions to support the goal of more equitable care. These solutions targeted challenges associated with education, briefing practices, access to interpreters, time constraints, and the appropriateness of therapy materials. The focus on interpreter access and clinician time highlights that how therapy is delivered, not just what therapy is offered, shapes outcomes.
What This Means for Everyday Lives
For people living with aphasia, word-finding difficulties can disrupt everyday conversations with family, friends, and clinicians, with real emotional and social consequences. Gesture offers a low-cost, always-available means of expression that may ease some of that frustration. Yet the benefits described in research are often modest and context-dependent, and access to effective therapy remains uneven. For many individuals, even partial gains in communication can meaningfully improve quality of life, though such outcomes are best described on a case-by-case basis.
Specifically, the study underscores that incorporating gestures can be a useful tool for those with aphasia and other language challenges. Recognizing the facilitative role of gestures opens the door for innovative approaches in aphasia therapy, promoting natural communication strategies.
Further research exploring the timing and content of gestures promises to provide even deeper insights into the gesture-word connection. For now, embrace your gestures – they might just be the key to unlocking your words.