Thinking with Your Hands: The Surprising Science Behind How Gestures Shape Our Thoughts

by Susan Goldin-Meadow

An astounding account of how gesture, long overlooked, is essential to how we learn and interact, which “changes the way you think about yourself and the people around you.” (Ethan Kross, bestselling author of  Chatter )

We all know people who talk with their hands—but do they know what they’re saying with them? Our gestures can reveal and contradict us, and express thoughts we may not even know we’re thinking.  In Thinking with Your Hands , esteemed cognitive psychologist Susan Goldin-Meadow argues that gesture is vital to how we think, learn, and communicate. She shows us, for instance, how the height of our gestures can reveal unconscious bias, or how the shape of a student’s gestures can track their mastery of a new concept—even when they’re still giving wrong answers. She compels us to rethink everything from how we set child development milestones, to what’s admissible in a court of law, to whether Zoom is an adequate substitute for in-person conversation.   Sweeping and ambitious, Thinking with Your Hands promises to transform the way we think about language and communication.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Science, Self Help, Language, Communication, Business

272 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2023

Reviews

[Laura (thenerdygnomelife) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Thinking with Your Hands" was an enjoyable nonfiction book focused on the gestures we use in everyday communication — movements we make with our hands as we speak, whether or not people can see us. As a psych major, this book fell firmly in a comfort zone for me, as Golden-Meadow dives into research on linguistics and how our brains process communication. Some readers who are not as comfortable with that format may find it a little heavy on the research side, but I appreciated that the content was rooted in the behavioral sciences. It was fascinating to learn that we gesture not just for others, but more for ourselves, and that gesturing can reveal thinking patterns we aren't even yet aware we have.

I would consider this a must-read for teachers especially, as there are clear actionable tips you can put into use in the classroom, both in enhancing students' understanding of the material and in understanding the level of comprehension each student currently has. While those concepts can certainly be extrapolated beyond school walls, I did find myself wishing there were more tips for the general public on how to become a more clear communicator through gestures or how to be more aware of the gestures you make. Overall, this was a solid read and the narration on the audiobook was pleasant and well done.

[Jamie Park · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this so much! I work in Deafblind services. Many of our children can't use sign language because they can't see and they can't talk because they don't hear.
But they absolutely communicate. They tap, wiggle, and make faces. They know how to express themselves, even before we teach them how to communicate.
I love the expression "home sign". I hadn't heard that before, although it might be a common expression in the deaf school.
This is a wonderful book and I think everyone should read it.

[Vivian · Rating 5 out of 5]

excited to continue this research this year!!!😻

[Penny Ramirez · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting, although quite academic, presentation.

The idea that children learn words and concepts better when combined with gestures is fascinating, especially children with learning challenges.

I used to gesticulate a LOT, so much so that a former employer insisted that I train myself to NOT use my hands at all when speaking, as it made her bonkers. Nice to have my actions justified by this work. I still use my hands when speaking, but not nearly as much as I did 30 years ago.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a pretty well known fact that I'd be a lifelong student if I had the funds to do so. Because of that, this book appealed to me on a lot of levels. I do a fair bit of presenting and public speaking, and regularly interact with my employees and my clients. While I expected "Thinking With Your Hands: Supporting the Science Behind How Gestures Shape Our Thoughts" to be about how working with your hands helped the person gesturing learn, it was actually much more about how to teach others and take cues from what their hands are telling you. Even with the slightly misleading title, I very much enjoyed this book.

A few fun take-aways:
- Gestures come for free when you learn a language. Even when they’ve never seen the gestures before! A blind person learning a language will start to form the gestures that seeing folks make while speaking. This happens differently with all languages, and the better you know a language, the more you "magically" pick up the gestures without external visual sources.
- Gestures can change your mind, or make you a bit more open to having your mind changed. (This is something to think about when arguing on the internet.)
- If your gestures and speech don’t match, you’re ready to change or learn the next step. (I LOVE THIS.)

The book was formatted well, and easy to follow in audio format. Additionally, I liked how often the author mentions contributors - that's not something I see a lot in books like this.

All in, I would recommend this one. It does go on for a bit longer than I'd have maybe chosen, but it could easily be broken into parts and enjoyed overtime to really let the information sink in. I'd say it's good recommendation for teachers of younger children especially.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media & Basic Books for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

[Kate Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

**Listened to the audio book**

This book was a pleasant surprise. I knew I would enjoy it - obviously why I chose to read it in the first place. But there was so much to this book.
I found this book super interesting, especially when it referred to learning difficulties and early diagnosis.

I've always been told I speak a lot with my hands, but who knew how much it says about me as a person. It's not something i've overly thought about, as it seems like a very small part of everyday life - and not something I have overly noticed - but this book has made me look at things in a totally different way. In particular how younger children use gestures.

At times this book felt a little overwhelming with the science/amount of detail but overall I was left completely fascinated.

[DJ DC · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yawn. A very dry and boring book about an interesting topic.

[Christopher Angulo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read. Nothing super novel, but definitely got the brain thinking about the power of gestures.

[Becki Sims · Rating 4 out of 5]

This audiobook was very interesting, it was informative and bought up some points for me to think and read further about.

It was well narrated and I feel this added to the overall audiobook experience.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for gifting me this arc in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

[Sophia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in less than 24 hours, that's how much I liked it. The first 3rd was the most interesting for my research. The rest seemed to focus much more on developmental psychology and first language acquisition. But I wish this book had existed when I was studying linguistics because this is exactly what I would have liked to focus on. If I could go back and redo my linguistics degree, I would focus on sign language and spatiality in relation to the body. My program offered SL and I was too young to really understand my own research interests at the time. Instead I focused on second language acquisition and sociolinguistcs because they didn't really care about my interest in anthropology, so I spent 3 years hitting my head against a wall.

Either way, I absolutely adored the focus on language here.

[Biggus · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why do some (inevitably poor) authors insist on spending a significant amount of time at the beginning, telling you what's coming in the book... chapter by chapter, with comments thrown in. SHUT UP, PLEASE, and just start. I'm about to read it, so I really don't need (or want) to know.

This book is an example of how to take a potentially fascinating subject, and turn it into a repetitive bore fest. Honestly, the amount of repetition is just silly. The author presents the same basic scenario, young kids doing simple algebra, over and over and over, each telling slightly different to the last, in an attempt to explain the basic premise of how gestures and learning are linked.

I think Susan should just stick to her area of expertise, and let decent writers do the writing.
Two and a bit hours into this mess, I pulled the pin. Pity.

[Ryan Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good information, but very repetetive, as if it were written for an academic journal instead of as a popularly published book.

[Logo Web Pros · Rating 4 out of 5]

📚 Book Review: "Thinking with Your Hands: The Surprising Science Behind How Gestures Shape Our Thoughts" 📚

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[Rori Rockman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is good for what it is, but wasn't quite what I had hoped it would be.

I was hoping for something along the lines of What Every Body is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Speed-Reading People, with lots of tips on what certain gestures mean and how to interpret them. But there really wasn't much of that. The book emphasizes paying attention to gesture without giving a whole lot of guidance on how to interpret gestures.

The book also focuses a lot on children. The author very explicitly acknowledges this in the book, saying that a lot of their studies and research focus on children since she's a children's psychologist, but then she goes on to say that she imagines the studies would apply to adults as well. Then she goes on to talk about things like how if a child points to objects, it's a good predictor of how quickly the child will be adding that word to their vocabulary, or that if they point to an object while saying something other than the object's name, that means they're on their way to forming complex sentences. I guess if you're around an adult who has not yet mastered complex sentences this might be helpful.

Anyways, there were certainly some interesting parts of the book. I thought it was cool how people who communicate with gestures wind up using the same sentence structure, even when they are from different parts of the world and the spoken language around them does not use that same structure. I also thought it was interesting advice how if you were trying to communicate with someone who does not speak your language, you're better of silently gesturing than gesturing while speaking. I also appreciated the author's honesty about when experiments didn't pan out the way she was expecting, and when she thinks a topic is a good candidate for further research but she doesn't know of such research ever being conducted.

Also, I want to note that this book is labeled as in the Psychology genre on Goodreads, but I think it is better categorized as in the category of linguistics. While I'm disappointed that it wasn't quite what I was expecting it to be, it's still a decent book.

[Liv · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book on the importance of gesturing covers how gestures affect learning and retention, reveal hidden biases, and are universal in their use.

I found the differentiation between gestures and signing to be interesting, and the difference between acquired gestures and instinctual gestures, especially in terms of “home signs,” or the invented language of a person who has never learned formal sign language.

Another interesting section was about the universality of gesture and how even blind people will gesture in conversation with each other and how their gestures are similar to those across cultures, despite never having seen them.

This would have been a very interesting article, but in a book format, it did become a little monotonous and was bogged down by over-describing the details, conditions, and processes of each academic study, when the findings and highlights would have been more appropriate for a general audience.

Thank you, NetGalley, for an advanced copy of this book.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish this book had attempted more, but it sticks closely to the science as carried out by the author and her students, colleagues, and friends, and that's a good thing too. Unlike some popular science books, she doesn't claim more than she is able to prove. The basic insight is that gestures, especially in the context of learning (teachers and young students) often express more than what is said. Sometimes, the student expresses a readiness to learn a new concept that he/she is not consciously aware of yet. Sometimes the teacher says one thing and gestures something else. Surprisingly, perhaps, students learn better when the teacher does so. And sometimes, when the gestures cohere with the spoken word, the student misses the nuance of what he/she is supposed to be learning. So gesture is a second language, it is not the same as the spoken one, and it can either support or belie the spoken one. Teachers (and parents) would do well to become more conscious of what the student is saying through gesture, and help he/she learn faster accordingly.

[Lance · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stuff I learned about gesture in this book is 5 stars for sure. However, the writing failed to hold my attention and the research is still lacking in giving enough big, shocking takeaways to propel the pace along. I would still recommend the book as a library borrow. I especially found the first few chapters to be sprinkled liberally with information that made me stop and say, “No way!” After that, the learning gets bogged down with explanations of experiments that mostly establish the background and foundation of the study of gesture. It’s nice to know they’re being thorough and thoughtful about the field. It just isn’t as interesting to read for my tastes.

I hope five or ten years of deeper research reveals more interesting and perspective-shifting findings about how gesture can reveal our brains to us and be used to make our communication better. I think those next steps are the point where I would really get engaged in the topic.

[Raquel Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for all teachers, parents, and perhaps anyone wishing to be a more effective communicator or counselor - how intentional gestures and observation of gestures augment teaching and learning processes, including the potential for leveling the ‘playing field’ in education.

While some of the points are repeatedly referenced, they are worth reexamination to understand cause and effect. There weren’t any magical tricks shared (ex. spontaneity is a natural element); the point is to notice and lead. Definitely worth considering and implementing.

[Carly Dacanay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a general 3 stars, but a speech path or linguist or developmental psych 5 stars.

Really fantastic, seamless presentation of research. I think I maybe would’ve liked a stronger conclusion… but, ngl, I have been reading this on and off maybe since March :) sooo maybe that wasn’t the most efficient read. I did find this super engaging and applicable and professional. If you’re curious to learn more I would definitely recommend this (just maybe not an audio book?). Be warned some of the descriptions of experiment procedures are dauntingly hard to follow in the audio book format.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book explores the phenomenon of talking with your hands. Talking with your hands, as in gesturing, is so fundamental to speech that we even do it in the dark, and people who have been blind from birth will also gesture. There are many ways in which gesturing externalizes your thoughts, lightens your cognitive load, and can help you to better think, learn, communicate, and teach. Three thumbs up for Susan Goldin-Meadow.

[zoagli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another one of those “this meeting could have been an email” books.

Gestures help convey – and, conversely, read – the full range of a persons thoughts. That’s not new, it’s a small – albeit important – part of what non-verbal communication (a much larger field) is all about.

What was new to me is that gesturing also helps you think and remember details more vividly.

The book expands on these basic ideas with lots of examples. That’s it.

[Erin Matson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gesture is an important component of communication. This book was at its most intriguing when discussing homesign, sign language created spontaneously by deaf children with hearing parents and no sign language examples. Gestures do appear to show the nature of where our ideas drive language, and not just vice versa. This is a scientific book and may not be suited for the general reader who is not a teacher or psychologist.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thinking with Your Hands is a thought-provoking exploration of how gestures can convey more meaning than we might think. The book proposes that combining verbal language with hand gestures can lead to more effective teaching and learning, a powerful idea. However, the book itself is not as good as the topic. The pacing is slow in some places and borders on being pedantic. Additionally, written descriptions and drawings are not enough to truly capture gestures; links to videos would have been much more effective.

[Tori · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty interesting read about how our gestures reveal what we’re thinking, hidden biases, and the difference between gestures, sign language, and home sign. i did get a little bored with all the details surrounding many different studies the author mentioned, thus making it a little difficult to follow at times.

[Nav · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative and a topic that feels like it has actual real world, everyday implications/applications. It did feel like when research or studies were being brought up they had been conducted by the author, a student of the author, or one of her colleagues which makes me wonder at the size of the academic community interested in this topic.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5? Interesting read. I didn't realize the content would focus on children though. I enjoyed the beginning with the mention of gestures in adults and was hoping for more of that. Nonetheless, the book did make me think of my time as a selectively mute child and my use of gestures - a thought I hadn't had before reading this book.

[Mars]

Could not get through this audiobook, not by any fault of the author, I just could not grasp the information without having to go back and relisten multiple times.

May one day try again but its not for me right now.

[Semih · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ignoring the litter of contemporary meta-Marxist discourse, it is a book that could be written with the single most common-sense sentence: People gesture in such and such circumstances and ways and seem to be the panacea for all suffering.

[Scott Winterroth]

For those interested in Goldin-Meadow's research, the University of Chicago's Big Brains Podcast offers an opportunity to learn more. Check it out here: https://news.uchicago.edu/what-our-ha....

[Traci Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book looked interesting by its title but it was a mismatch for me. I do though see it’s use in education so I will pass it on to a K-12 educational leader I know.