Language & Intelligence

Why people gesture and move while talking on the phone

For neurodivergent people and countless others, phone calls demand a bargain their nervous systems weren't built to strike.

By: Global English Editing Editorial Team

Aug 7, 2026 2 min read Editorial standards Meet our editors

Many people pace, gesture, doodle, or tap a foot while talking on the phone. Movement can accompany thought, but it does not reveal a special type of person or prove that someone processes meaning through the body before language.

Gesture is part of ordinary communication

A 2020 review in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience describes gesture as closely connected to speech and cognition. People gesture when listeners cannot see them, and congenitally blind speakers gesture to blind listeners. Studies reviewed in the paper suggest that gesture can help organize speech, communicate spatial information, support memory, and reduce mental load in some tasks.

Those findings help explain why hands may keep moving during an audio-only call. They do not establish that people who move most are relying on gesture more than everyone else, or that a phone call removes their ability to process meaning.

Fidgeting is a separate question

Pacing and repetitive movements are not identical to meaningful hand gestures. Research discussed by UC Davis professor Julie Schweitzer has examined fidgeting and attention, particularly in people with ADHD. That work cannot be generalized into a diagnosis for anyone who walks during a call.

Movement may reflect habit, comfort, anxiety, excess energy, the need to change posture, or an attempt to concentrate. The behavior alone does not tell us which explanation applies.

Choosing a useful format

For a routine update, audio may be all that is needed. A visually complex explanation may be easier over video or beside a shared document, where gesture and visible reference points can carry information. Someone who focuses better while walking can also let themselves walk without treating the movement as a problem.

The practical lesson is flexible rather than diagnostic: gesture and movement can support communication, but no single pattern of movement reveals how a person’s mind works.

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Global English Editing Editorial Team

The Global English Editing Editorial Team produces our blog content covering writing, communication, the psychology of self-expression, and the dynamics of how people interact at work and in life. Articles reflect our team's collective editorial process, research, drafting, fact-checking, editing, and review, rather than a single individual's writing. Global English Editing takes editorial responsibility for content under this byline. For more on how we work, see our editorial standards.

Why people gesture and move while talking on the phone

Gesture is part of ordinary communication

Fidgeting is a separate question

Choosing a useful format

Global English Editing Editorial Team

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