Cover not available

Article published In: Gesture
Vol. 17:2 (2018) ► pp.245–267

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

From touching to communicating

Forms of index finger use in the development of pointing

 | Simon Fraser University
 | Simon Fraser University
Published online: 26 June 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.18005.ket
Abstract
Infants can extend their index fingers soon after birth, yet pointing gestures do not emerge until about 10 to 12 months. In the present study, we draw on the process-relational view, according to which pointing develops as infants learn how others respond to their initially non-communicative index finger use. We report on a longitudinal maternal diary study of 15 infants and describe four types of index finger use in the first year. Analysis of the observations suggests one possible developmental pathway: index finger extension becomes linked to infants’ attention around 7 to 9 months of age with the emergence of fingertip exploration and index finger extension towards out-of-reach objects infants wish to explore. Through parental responses infants begin to use index finger touch to refer in some situations, including asking and answering questions and to request, suggesting that some functions of pointing might originate in early index finger use.
Article outline
  • Early index finger use
  • Method
    • Participants
    • Procedure
  • Analysis of observations
    • Index finger extension not coordinated with attention (slip-out pointing)
    • Touch to explore
    • Incipient touch to explore
    • Touch to refer
  • Discussion
  • References
References (52)
References
Altmann, Jeanne (1974). Observational study of behaviour: Sampling methods. Behavior, 49 (3/4), 227–267. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baldwin, James Mark (1906). Thoughts and things, Vol. 1: Functional logic. New York: MacMillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bates, Elizabeth, Luigia Camaioni, & Virginia Volterra (1975). The acquisition of performatives prior to speech. Merrill Palmer Quarterly, 211, 205–226.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Begus, Katarina & Victoria Southgate (2012). Infant pointing serves an interrogative function. Developmental Science, 15 (5), 611–617. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blake, Joanna, Paula O’Rourke, & Grace Borzellino (1994). Form and function in the development of pointing and reaching gestures. Infant Behavior and Development, 171, 195–203. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Braunwald, Susan R., & Richard W. Brislin (1979). The diary method updated. In Elinor Ochs & Bambi B. Schieffelin (Eds.), Developmental pragmatics (pp. 21–42). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Butterworth, George E. & Paul Morissette (1996). Onset of pointing and the acquisition of language in infancy. Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 141, 219–231. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Camaioni, Luigia, Maria Cristina Caselli, Emiddia Longobardi, & Virginia Volterra (1991). A parent report instrument for early language assessment. First language, 111, 345–360. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Camaioni, Luigia, Paola Perucchini, Francesca Bellagamba, & Cristina Colonnesi (2004). The role of declarative pointing in developing a theory of mind. Infancy, 5 (3), 291–308. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Canfield, John V. (1995). The rudiments of language. Language & Communication, 15 (3), 195–211. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2007). Becoming human: The development of language, self, and self-consciousness. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carpendale, Jeremy I. M., Sherrie Atwood, & Viktoria Kettner (2013). Meaning and mind from the perspective of dualist versus relational worldviews: Implications for the development of pointing gestures. Human Development, 561, 381–400. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carpendale, Jeremy I. M. & Ailidh B. Carpendale (2010). The development of pointing: From personal directedness to interpersonal direction. Human Development, 531, 110–126. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carpendale, Jeremy I. M. & Charlie Lewis (2004). Constructing an understanding of mind: The development of children’s social understanding within social interaction. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 271, 79–151. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2015a). The development of social understanding. In R. Lerner (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology and developmental science, 7th edition, Vol. 21: Cognitive processes (pp. 381–424). New York: Wiley Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2015b). Taking natural history seriously in studying the social formation of thinking: Critical analysis of a natural history of human thinking by Michael Tomasello. Human Development, 581, 55–66. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cochet, Hélène & Jacques Vauclair (2010a). Pointing gestures produced by toddlers from 15 to 30 months: Different functions, hand shapes and laterality patterns. Infant Behavior and Development, 331, 431–441. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2010b). Features of spontaneous pointing gestures in toddlers. Gesture, 10 (1), 86–107. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Colonnesi, Cristina, Geert Jan J. M. Stams, Irene Koster, & Marc J. Noom (2010). The relation between pointing and language development: A meta-analysis. Developmental Review, 301, 352–366. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fletcher, Kathryn L. & Elaine Reese (2005). Picture book reading with young children: A conceptual framework. Developmental Review, 251, 64–103. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fogel, Alan & Thomas E. Hannan (1985). Manual actions of nine- to fifteen-week-old human infants during face-to-face interaction with their mothers. Child Development, 561, 1271–1279.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, Susan, Whitney Goodrich, Eve Sauer, & Jana Iverson (2007). Young children use their hands to tell their mothers what to say. Developmental Science, 10 (6), 778–785. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grünloh, Thomas & Ulf Liszkowski (2015). Prelinguistic vocalizations distinguish pointing acts. Journal of Child Language, 421, 1312–1336. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halina, Marta, Federico Rossano, & Michael Tomasello (2013). The ontogenetic ritualization of bonobo gestures. Animal Cognition, 161, 653–666. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kaye, Kenneth (1982). The mental and social life of babies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kettner, Viktoria A. (2014). Early functions of pointing: The importance of routines in communicative development. Unpublished master’s thesis. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
King, Barbara J. (2004). The dynamic dance: Nonvocal communication in African great apes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kishimoto, Takeshi, Yasuhiro Shizawa, Iun Yasuda, Toshihiko Hinobayashi, & Tetsuhiro Minami (2007). Do pointing gestures by infants provoke comments from adults? Infant Behavior & Development, 301, 562–567. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kovács, Ágnes M., Tibor Tauzin, Ernő Téglás, György Gergely, & Gergely Csibra (2014). Pointing as epistemic request: 12-month-olds point to receive new information. Infancy, 19 (6), 543–557. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liszkowski, Ulf, Malinda Carpenter, Anne Henning, Tricia Striano, & Michael Tomasello (2004). Twelve-month-olds point to share attention and interest. Developmental Science, 7 (3), 297–307. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liszkowski, Ulf, Malinda Carpenter, Tricia Striano, & Michael Tomasello (2006). 12- and 18-month-olds point to provide information for others. Journal of Cognition and Development, 7 (2), 173–187. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liszkowski, Ulf, Malinda Carpenter, & Michael Tomasello (2007). Pointing out new news, old news, and absent referents at 12 months of age. Developmental Science, 10 (2), F1–F7. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liszkowski, Ulf & Michael Tomasello (2011). Individual differences in social, cognitive, and morphological aspects of infant pointing. Cognitive Development, 261, 16–29. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lock, Andrew (1992). Anecdotal occurrences may be really important events. Human Movement Science, 111, 497–504. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lock, Andrew, Andrew Young, Valerie Service, & Paul Chandler (1990). Some observations on the origins of the pointing gesture. In Virginia Volterra & Carol J. Erting (Eds.), From gesture to language in hearing and deaf children (pp. 42–55). Berlin: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martin, Paul & Paul Patrick Gordon Bateson (1993). Measuring behaviour: An introductory guide (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Masataka, Nobuo (1995). The relation between index-finger extension and the acoustic quality of cooing in three-month-old infants. Journal of Child Language, 221, 247–257. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2003). From index-finger extension to index-finger pointing: Ontogenesis of pointing in preverbal infants. In Sotaro Kita (Ed.), Pointing: Where language, culture, and cognition meet (pp. 69–84). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mead, George Herbert (1934). Mind, self, and society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miller, Jennifer L. & Amanda K. Lossia (2013). Prelinguistic infants’ communicative system: Role of caregiver social feedback. First Language, 33 (5), 524–544. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Muñetón Ayala, Mercedes Amparo & María José Rodrigo (2011). Functions of the pointing gesture in mothers and their 12- to 36-month-old children during everyday activities. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 14 (2), 619–629. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Olson, Janet & Elise Frank Masur (2011). Infants’ gestures influence mothers’ provision of object, action and internal state labels. Journal of Child Language, 381, 1028–1054. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Povinelli, Daniel J. & D. Richard Davis (1994). Differences between chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and humans (Homo sapiens) in the resting state of the index finger: Implications for pointing. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 108 (2), 134–139. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shinn, Milicent Washburn (1900). The biography of a baby. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tomasello, Michael (2008). Origins of human communication. Cambridge: The MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tomasello, Michael & Malinda Carpenter (2013). Dueling dualists: Commentary on Carpendale, Atwood, and Kettner. Human Development, 561, 401–405. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tomasello, Michael, Malinda Carpenter, Joseph Call, Tanya Behne, & Henrike Moll (2005). Understanding and sharing intentions: The origins of cultural cognition. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 281, 675–735. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tomasello, Michael, Malinda Carpenter, & Ulf Liszkowski (2007). A new look at infant pointing. Child Development, 78 (3), 705–722. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vygotsky, Lev S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Werner, Heinz & Bernard Kaplan (1963). Symbol formation. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wu, Zhen & Julie Gros-Louis (2015). Caregivers provide more labeling responses to infants’ pointing than to infants’ object-directed vocalizations. Journal of Child Language, 42 (3), 538–561. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Winch, Peter (1958). The idea of a social science and its relation to philosophy. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (12)

Cited by 12 other publications

Toyama, Noriko
2025. The Association Between Pointing and Walking in Infants: A Longitudinal Observational Study. Infancy 30:4 DOI logo
Carpendale, Jeremy I.M., Viktoria A. Kettner & Irene Guevara de Haro
2024. A Genealogy of Gestures: On the Nature and Emergence of Forms of Gestural Communication within Shared Routines. Human Development 68:1 ► pp. 30 ff. DOI logo
Guevara, Irene, Cintia Rodríguez & María Núñez
2024. Developing gestures in the infant classroom: from showing and giving to pointing. European Journal of Psychology of Education 39:4 ► pp. 4671 ff. DOI logo
Lovcevic, Irena, Marina Kammermeier, Junko Kanero, Yuan Fang, Yan Dong, Sho Tsuji & Markus Paulus
2024. Infants’ use of the index finger for social and non-social purposes during the first two years of life: A cross-cultural study. Infant Behavior and Development 75 ► pp. 101953 ff. DOI logo
Prieur, Jacques, Katja Liebal & Simone Pika
2024. Social negotiation and “accents” in Western lowland gorillas’ gestural communication. Scientific Reports 14:1 DOI logo
Carpendale, Jeremy I. M. & Beau Wallbridge
2023. From action to ethics: A process-relational approach to prosocial development. Frontiers in Psychology 14 DOI logo
Green, Kirsty R., Chloe Osei-Cobbina, Marcus Perlman & Sotaro Kita
2023. Infants can create iconic gestures during natural interactions with caregivers. Gesture 22:3 ► pp. 288 ff. DOI logo
Guevara, Irene & Cintia Rodríguez
2023. Developing communication through objects: Ostensive gestures as the first gestures in children's development. Developmental Review 68 ► pp. 101076 ff. DOI logo
Paulus, Markus, Marina Kammermeier & Saskia Melzel
2023. The emergence of pointing as a communicative gesture: Age-related differences in infants’ non-social and social use of the index finger. Cognitive Development 65 ► pp. 101298 ff. DOI logo
Salter, Gideon & Malinda Carpenter
2022. Showing and giving: from incipient to conventional forms. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 377:1859 DOI logo
Broesch, Tanya & Yitong Wang
2021. Human Infancy and Childhood. In Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Broesch, Tanya & Yitong Wang
2022. Human Infancy and Childhood. In Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior, ► pp. 3291 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 9 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue