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Pointing and social awareness: declaring and requesting in the second year*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Fabia Franco  and
George Butterworth
Fabia Franco*
Affiliation:
University of Padova
George Butterworth
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
*
Address for correspondence: Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy. E-mail: franco@ipdunivx.unipd.it
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Abstract

The production of pointing and other gestures (e.g. reaching or indicative gestures) by 47 infants aged 1; 0 to 1; 6 was investigated in two experiments contrasting declarative-referential vs. imperative-instrumental conditions of communication. A further group of seven infants aged 0; 10 was examined in order to highlight pre-pointing transitional phenomena. Data analyses concerned gestures and associated vocalizations and visual checking with a social partner. Results show that gestures are produced differentially in the experimental conditions: while reaching is only produced in imperative-instrumental contexts, pointing is characteristic of declarative-referential contexts. The pattern of visual checking with the social partner also differentiates gestures; moreover, it shows developmental changes in the case of pointing. Results suggest that pointing relies on some awareness of ‘psychological’ processes (e.g. attention and sharing) in the other and the self, and that it is this which may account for the specific relevance of pointing for language development.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , June 1996 , pp. 307 - 336
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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Footnotes

[*]

The studies reported here were conducted when both authors were at the University of Stirling (Scotland); pilot work was funded by Italian C.N.R. 08 A.I. grant and a European Science Foundation short term fellowship, whereas the main project was funded by ESRC grant N. R000231286. Preliminary parts of this research have been presented at the 1989 and 1991 SRCD conferences. Many thanks are due to the technical staff of Stirling Department of Psychology for co-operation during various phases of the studies; to Adina Lew for helping with reliability; and to Eraldo Nicotra for discussions about statistical issues.

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