Abstract
To investigate the emergence of communicative behaviour, the course of the development of ten gestures in two normal infants was observed. Data was gathered for one male infant and one female infant from six to eighteen months of age by using the diary method. The following results were obtained from this one year period of observation: (1) The order of the appearance of gestures fell into two groups: pointing, head-shaking, showing and hand-waving for the first group: hand-raising, nodding, bowing, out stretched arms (vertically), out-stretched hand and beckoning for the second group. (2) Although the gestures in the first group emerged as early as nine months of age, they had no communicative function right after they appeared. (3) The gestures in the second group appeared later than the first group and had a communicative function during the early stage of their appearance. As a result of this study, we think that there is a stage in which an infant enjoys producing gestures without a communicative function before gestures are used for communication. We also speculate that this turning point is about the age of fifteen months.
