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Thoughts conveyed through gesture often differ from thoughts conveyed through speech. In this article, a model of the sources and consequences of such gesture–speech mismatches and their role during transitional periods in the acquisition of concepts is proposed. The model makes 2 major claims:(a) The transitional state is the source of gesture–speech mismatch. In gesture–speech mismatch, 2 beliefs are simultaneously expressed on the same problem—one in gesture and another in speech. This simultaneous activation of multiple beliefs characterizes the transitional knowledge state and creates gesture–speech mismatch.(b) Gesture–speech mismatch signals to the social world that a child is in a transitional state and is ready to learn. The child's spontaneous gestures index the zone of proximal development, thus providing a mechanism by which adults can calibrate their input to that child's level of …