Are hand gestures important?

Do they help in conversations?

This blog is very personal as many years ago a person I was working with criticized me for using hand gestures when I spoke. Now don’t get me wrong, I understand that some people don’t use any gestures, therefore do not like anyone using hand gestures.

According to Art Markman Ph.D. in a Psychology Today article; “One interesting role of gestures is that they can help people to find a word. We all have had the experience of knowing what we want to say, but not being able to find the word. This kind of tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon can be quite frustrating at times. Gestures can sometimes help you out with that.”

So I guess the answer to my question is, yes hand gestures are important if we are trying to find the correct word to say. I will note that I was not using hand gestures while I wrote this blog. I’ll conclude by asking a question;

Would you consider using a hand gesture if it would help you find a word to help explain something in more detail?