Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T05:13:38.125Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Functions of the Pointing Gesture in Mothers and their 12 to 36-Month-Old Children during Everyday Activities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2013

Mercedes Amparo Muñetón Ayala  and
María José Rodrigo López
Mercedes Amparo Muñetón Ayala*
Affiliation:
Universidad de Antioquia (Colombia)
María José Rodrigo López
Affiliation:
Universidad de La Laguna (Spain)
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Mercedes Amparo Muñetón Ayala. Facultad de Comunicaciones, Ciudad Universitaria, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, (Colombia). E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study longitudinally examined the production of pointing in four Spanish 1-year-old and four Spanish 2-year-old children in interactive situations with their mothers at home over the course of one year. Three aspects were analyzed: a) the functions of the pointing gesture, their accurate comprehension by the interlocutor (mother or child), and their order of emergence in the child; b) whether or not there were differences in the production of pointing according to who initiated the interaction; and c) whether maternal and child speech were related to maternal and child pointing production. The results showed that the pointing function of showing is the most frequent for both children and mothers from groups 1 and 2, and the first to emerge followed by the informing, requesting object, requesting action, and requesting cooperation functions. The accuracy with which these intentions were comprehended was found to be very high for both mother and child. Pointing production was greater when the speaker initiated the interaction than when the other person did, indicating that gestures follow the turn-taking system. Finally, the production of pointing to showing in children and mothers was found to be related to maternal and child speech, while pointing to request cooperation triggered the process of joint activity between mother and child.

Se examinó longitudinalmente durante un año la producción de gestos de señalamiento de 8 niños (4 de 1 años y 4 de 2 años) en situaciones interactivas con sus madres en el hogar. Se analizaron tres aspectos: a) las funciones del señalamiento, su uso y comprensión por parte de la madre y del niño y su edad de emergencia; b) si existían cambios en la producción de señalamientos de la madre y del niño en función de quién inicia la interacción; y c) si había relación entre las funciones del señalamiento y la producción verbal de la madre y del niño. Los resultados sugieren que el señalamiento de mostrar tiene una mayor producción tanto en la madre como en el niño y a nivel evolutivo emerge primero, seguido del de informar, pedir objeto, pedir acción y cooperación. La madre y el niño interpretan con precisión las diferentes funciones de los gestos de señalamiento. Iniciar la interacción verbal incrementa la probabilidad de producir señalamientos lo que indica que los gestos también se articulan según el sistema de turnos. Por último, la función de mostrar está más relacionado con el desarrollo lingüístico, mientras que la de cooperar dispara el proceso de colaboración entre madre e hijo.

Keywords

pointing gesturemother-child interactionslongitudinal studygesto de señalamientointeracción madre-hijoestudio longitudinal
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , November 2011 , pp. 619 - 629
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aureli, T., Perucchini, P., & Genco, M. (2009). Children's understanding of communicative intentions in the middle of the second year of life. Cognitive Development, 24, 1–12. doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2008.07.003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Baldwin, D. A. (1991). Infant contributions to the achievement of joint reference. Child Development, 62, 875–890. doi:10.2307/1131140CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baldwin, D. (1995) Understanding the link between joint attention and language. In Moore, C. & Dunham, P. J. (Eds.), Joint Attention: Its origins and role in development (pp. 131–154) Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Baron-Cohen, S. (1989). Perceptual role-taking and protodeclarative pointing in autism. British Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 30, 285–298.Google Scholar
Bates, E., Camaioni, L., & Volterra, V. (1975). The acquisition of preformatives prior to speech. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 21, 205–226Google Scholar
Bates, E, Benigni, L, Bretherton, I, Camaioni, L., & Volterra, V. (1979). The Emergence of Symbols: Cognition and Communication in Infancy. New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Bloom, L., Rocissano, L., & Hood, L. (1976). Adult-child discourse: developmental interaction between information processing and linguistic knowledge. Cognitive Psychology, 8, 521–552. doi:10.1016/0010-0285(76)90017-7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruner, S. J. (1975) Child development: play is serious business. Psychology Today, 8, 80–83.Google Scholar
Bruner, S. J. (1977). Early social Interaction and Language Acquisition. In Schaffer, H. R. (Ed.), Studies in Mother-lnfant Interaction (pp. 271–289). London, UK: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Butterworth, G., & Morissette, P. (1996). Onset of pointing and the acquisition of language in infancy. Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 14, 219–231. doi:10.1080/02646839608404519CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Camaioni, L. (1993). The development of intentional communication: A re-analysis. In Nadel, J. & Camaioni, L. (Eds.), New perspectives in early communicative development (pp. 82–96). London, UK: Routledge.Google Scholar
Camaioni, L., Castelli, M. C., Longobardi, E., & Volterra, V. (1991). A parent report instrument for early language assessment. First Language, 11, 345–358. doi:10.1177/014272379 101103303CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Camaioni, L., Perucchini, P., Bellagamba, F., & Colonnesi, C. (2004). The role of declarative pointing in developing a theory of mind. Infancy, 5, 291–308. doi:10.1207/s15327078in0503_3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carpenter, M., Nagell, K., & Tomasello, M. (1998). Social cognition, joint attention, and communicative competence from 9 to 15 months of age. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 63(4). doi:10.2307/1166214CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, H. (1996). Uses of language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elgier, A. M., & Mustaca, A. E. (2009). Perspectivas teóricas contemporáneas sobre el gesto de señalar infantil [Contemporary theoretical perspectives on the infant pointing gesture]. Avances en Psicología Latinoamericana, 27, 281–296.Google Scholar
Fenson, L., Dale, P. S., Reznick, J. S., Bates, E., Thal, D. J., & Pethick, S. J. (1994). Variability in early communicative development. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59(5). doi:10.2307/1166093CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Franco, F., & Butterworth, G. (1996). Pointing and social awareness: declaring and requesting in the second year. Journal of Child Language, 23, 307–336. doi:10.1017/S0305000900008813CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gomez, J. (1991). Visual behavior as a window for reading the mind of others in primates. In Whiten, A. (Ed.), Natural Theories of Mind (pp. 195–207). Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Halliday, M. (1990). Language, context and text: aspects of language in a social-semiotic perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Liebal, K., & Tomasello, M. (2009). Infants appreciate the social intention behind a pointing gesture: Commentary on “Children's understanding of communicative intentions in the middle of the second year of life” by T. Aureli, P. Perucchini, and M. Genco. Cognitive Development, 24, 13–15. doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2008.09.004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liszkowski, U., Carpenter, M., Henning, A., Striano, T., & Tomasello, M. (2004). Twelve-month-olds point to share attention and interest. Developmental Science, 7, 297–307. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2004.00349.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liszkowski, U., Carpenter, M., Striano, T., & Tomasello, M. (2006). 12- and 18-month-olds point to provide information for others. Journal of Social Cognition and Development, 7, 173–187. doi:10.1207/s15327647jcd0702_2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mora, E., Martínez, H., & Domínguez, C., (2009). Análisis audio-perceptivo y acústico de la prosodia de las cláusulas del español venezolano [Audio-perceptive and acoustic analyses of the prosody of clauses in Venezuelan Spanish]. Opción, 25, 54–69.Google Scholar
Muñetón, M., Ramírez, G., & Rodrigo, M. J., (2005). Estudio longitudinal de la producción de deícticos en castellano en niños de 12 a 36 meses durante las actividades cotidianas [Longitudial study of the production of diectics in spanish 1-and 2-year-old children in everyday activities]. Anuario de Psicología, 36, 315–338.Google Scholar
Mueller, E., & Lucas, T. (1975). A developmental analysis of peer interaction among toddlers. In Lewis, M. & Rosenblum, L. A. (Eds.), Friendship and Peer Relations (pp. 223–257). New York, NY: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Pettito, L. A. (1993). Modularity and constraints in early lexical acquisition. In Bloom, P. (Ed.), Language Acquisition (pp. 25–59). New York, NY: Harvester Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar
Rodrigo, M. J., González, A., de Vega, M., Muñeton-Ayala, , & Rodríguez, G. (2004). From gestural to verbal deixis: A longitudinal study with Spanish infants and toddlers. First Language, 24, 71–90. doi:10.1177/0142723704041040CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodrigo, M. J., González, A., Ato, M., Rodríguez, G., de Vega, M., & Muñeton-Ayala, M. (2005). Co-development of child–mother gestures over the second and the third years. Infant and Child Development, 14, 1–17. doi:10.1002/icd.412Google Scholar
Rogoff, B. (1989). The joint socialization of development by young children and adults. In Gellatly, A., Rogers, D., & Sloboda, J.A. (Eds.), Cognition and Social Worlds. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Rogoff, B., Malkin, C., & Gilbride, K. (1984). Interaction with babies as guidance for development. In Rogoff, B. & Wertsch, J. (Eds.), Children learning in the zone of proximal development (pp. 65–76). San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.Google Scholar
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E.A., & Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language, 50, 696–735. doi:10.2307/412243CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaffer, H. R., Collis, G. M., & Parsons, G. (1977). Vocal interchange and visual regard in verbal and pre-verbal children. In Schaffer, H. R. (Ed.), Studies in Mother-Infant Interaction (pp. 291–324). London, UK: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M. (1995). Joint attention as social cognition. In Moore, C. & Dunham, P. J. (Eds.), Joint Attention: Its origins and role in development (pp. 103–130). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M., Carpenter, M., & Liszkowski, U. (2007). A new look at infant pointing. Child Development, 78(3), 705–722.CrossRefGoogle Scholar