1 thing from the Extended Mind that surprised me

Being able to gesture accurately is a superpower.

It seems that gesture has an impact on communication and learning that is underrated. More powerful than what you say is what you show with your hands.

Gesture brings an uncertain future into the observable present, imbues it with a realness that we can almost touch.

This implies that gesture can be used as an aid for us to understand difficult concepts, or issues that we find a challenge grasping.

Even without a thorough understanding, gesture still assists us in making progress towards understanding. We substitute trying to articulate the unknown fog through our hands.

With a little effort, it’s possible to glean the information gesture holds, and once we do so, we have a host of new options. We can supply the insight the gesturer is reaching for—an insight for which, research suggests, she is already mentally primed; we can “translate” that individual’s gesture into words (“It looks like you’re suggesting that . . .”); and we can “second” her gesture by reproducing it ourselves, thereby reaffirming the promising strategy she has pointed to with her hands.

What else that this mean for gesturing?

By encouraging gesturing on both the instructor and learners, learners have another medium of communication
Restricting movement means restricting learning and communication. Let people stand, use their bodies.
A shared ‘sign language’ would further reduce barriers to communication

Hands can be a prompt, a window, a way station—but what they ought never have to be is still.