Development of Infant Pointing from 10 to 12 months: The Role of Relevant Caregiver Responsiveness

Abstract

Infants’ pointing frequency is a predictor of their later language abilities. Yet, predictors of pointing frequency in the first year of life are not well understood. Study 1 explored what factors in infants and caregivers at 10 months would predict the pointing frequency of infants at 12 months (N = 35). Infant‐driven predictors were infants’ fine‐motor skills and point‐following abilities. Caregiver‐mediated predictors were caregivers’ pointing frequency and responsiveness toward infants’ pointing. Relevant caregiver responsiveness at 10 months predicted infants’ pointing frequency at 12 months, controlling for the other factors and infants’ prior pointing frequency. Study 2 explored whether child‐level factors influence caregivers’ responsiveness (N = 49). We examined the hand shape of infants’ pointing (whole‐hand versus index‐finger) and the presence of point‐accompanying vocalizations. Infants’ vocalization‐accompanied points were more likely to elicit relevant responses from caregivers, while hand shapes played a less pronounced role. Together, the findings reveal an early emerging mutual relationship between infant pointing and caregiver behavior such that certain characteristics of infant pointing predict caregivers’ responsiveness, and relevant responsiveness toward infants’ pointing predicts the increase in infants’ pointing frequencies.

A Cross‐Cultural Analysis of Early Prelinguistic Gesture Development and Its Relationship to Language Development

“…We situate the study within a dynamic sociocultural account of development in which infants learn the social significance of deictic gestures through interaction with experienced others, typically the infant's primary caregiver (Carpendale & Lewis, 2004; Salomo & Liszkowski, 2013; Vygotsky, 1978). We focus specifically on infant‐initiated deictic gestures since we predict that infants who encounter success at drawing the attention of their caregiver to an object and eliciting a meaningful response will display accelerated communicative growth (e.g., Ger, Altınok, Liszkowski, & Küntay, 2018). We focused on three distinct and diverse (macro) cultural groups living within the United Kingdom of Great Britain (UK) namely Bengali, Chinese, and British.…”

On the Multimodal Path to Language: The Relationship Between Rhythmic Movements and Deictic Gestures at the End of the First Year

“…The multimodal rhythmic movements can serve as an opportunity for the child to learn how to bring another person's attention toward a reference, which is precisely the goal of deictic gestures. Adults are more willing to react to children's behaviors when vocalizations are included (Balog and Brentari, 2008 ; Fasolo and D'Odorico, 2012 ; Ger et al, 2018 ). The coordinated use of rhythmic movements and vocalizations in a social context can facilitate the pragmatic development needed to perform the first communicative gestures.…”

“…Second, we did not analyze adults' reactions to rhythmic movements in order to investigate a possible differential reaction which would depend on the multimodality and the use of objects. Since adults react more often to children's behaviors when they include vocalizations (Balog and Brentari, 2008 ; Fasolo and D'Odorico, 2012 ; Ger et al, 2018 ), further research is needed to clarify if this is the case regarding rhythmic movements. Third, extending the follow-up study to 15 months would have allowed us to analyze the changes in multimodality as well as the consolidation of distal deictic use and the maintenance of the links between rhythmic movements, proximal deictics, and distal deictics.…”

Infants who experience more adult-initiated conversations have better expressive language in toddlerhood

“…However, it is important to note that the current methodology-capturing adult-infant conversations via audio recording-limits our ability to examine the impact of conversations that might have been initiated by an adult's response to their infant's non-vocal behavior. While there is evidence that infant gestures (e.g., pointing) are more likely to elicit responses from caregivers if they are paired with a vocalization (Ger et al, 2018), the predictive significance of infant initiations might have increased if gestures or other behaviors were also measured as initiations of communicative exchanges (Donnellan et al, 2020).…”