Developmental Change of Pointing:

From ‘One-Self Pointing’ to ‘Communicative Pointing’

Abstract

This study focuses on ‘pointing behavior’ appearing at around nine months old, which is a major behavior in the preverbal vocal period. It aimed to observe the pointing behavior of nine children under the age of one (five boys and four girls); ‘one-self pointing’ and ‘communicative pointing’ were observed. In analysis, examinations were carried out from three viewpoints: children's age, physical development and verbal development. The results showed differences in children's pointing according to their development. The characteristics of children's production of ‘one-self pointing’ were classified into four categories: aspect, purpose, understanding/naming and others. Up to one-and-a-half years old, results for the purpose category were high; after that, results in the aspect category became higher.