RUNNING HEAD: Co-speech gestures and pain communication Externalizing the Private Experience of Pain: A Role for Co-speech Gestures in Pain Communication? SUBMISSION TO: Health Communication

Despite the importance of effective pain communication, talking about pain represents a challenge for patients and clinicians because pain is a private and subjective experience. This article considers the limitations of current methods of obtaining information about the sensory characteristics of pain and argues that spontaneously produced ‘co-speech hand gestures’ may constitute an important source of information here. We present recent empirical evidence that reveals that co-speech gestures contain important information about the pain experience that can both add to and clarify speech. Although this is a relatively new area, these findings suggest that for effective pain communication to occur, recipients must take full advantage of the information contained in both the verbal and gestural modalities. By highlighting the potential role for gestures in communicating pain, we hope to stimulate further research in this area, eventually leading to improvements within clinical practice. In particular, it is expected that a more holistic approach, which considers co-speech gestures alongside speech, will lead to a greater understanding of the pain experience, and potentially to improvements in treatment and support for pain sufferers.