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Updated: May 19, 2026
Examining Gesture Production in the Presence of Communication Challenges
Published on: January 26, 2024
Twelve-month-olds' comprehension and production of pointing
Tanya Behne1, Ulf Liszkowski, Malinda Carpenter
1Courant Research Centre 'Evolution of Social Behaviour', University of Göttingen, Germany. tbehne@uni-goettingen.de
Insights
Twelve-month-old infants understand pointing gestures as communication. They can follow an adult's informative point to find a hidden toy and some even produce pointing gestures themselves, showing a developing understanding of communicative intent.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Infant Communication
- Cognitive Development
Background:
- Pointing gestures are crucial for human communication.
- Understanding the communicative intent behind pointing develops early in infancy.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if 12-month-old infants comprehend the communicative function of pointing gestures.
- To explore the bidirectional understanding of pointing in infants.
Main Methods:
- Infants participated in a task involving an adult's informative pointing gesture to locate a hidden toy.
- Infants' comprehension and production of pointing gestures were observed and correlated.
Main Results:
- Most infants successfully comprehended the adult's informative pointing gesture.
- A significant number of infants also produced appropriate pointing gestures, reversing roles.
- A positive correlation was found between comprehension and production of pointing gestures.
Conclusions:
- By 12 months of age, infants demonstrate an emerging understanding of the communicative function of pointing.
- Infants show a bidirectional grasp of pointing, both understanding and producing communicative gestures.
Abstract:
This study explored whether infants aged 12 months already recognize the communicative function of pointing gestures. Infants participated in a task requiring them to comprehend an adult's informative pointing gesture to the location of a hidden toy. They mostly succeeded in this task, which required them to infer that the adult was attempting to direct their attention to a location for a reason - because she wanted them to know that a toy was hidden there. Many of the infants also reversed roles and produced appropriate pointing gestures for the adult in this same game, and indeed there was a correlation such that comprehenders were for the most part producers. These findings indicate that by 12 months of age infants are beginning to show a bidirectional understanding of communicative pointing.
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