Beat gestures are gestures that do not carry any speech content. They convey non-narrative content and are more in tune with the rhythm of speech. According to Alibali et al. (2001), beat gestures are used regardless of whether the speaker could see the listener or not. Therefore, beat gestures accentuate the topic that is being conveyed without directly referring to the topic, emphasizing certain words and phrases during speech.
Still unsure about what beat gestures are? Here’s a video to show an example of beat gestures!