Browsing by Author "Pesonen, Riina"

Aims. The aim of my study was to find out how much children, ages one to three, use functionally different kinds of pointing gestures, and whether their usage has a connection to children’s productive language development. I also surveyed in what kind of situations children use pointing gestures, and what kind of features are associated with their usage. Earlier studies have shown that the use of pointing gestures is at its largest at the age of 1,5 years, and that both the initiative pointing features and the declarative pointing features have a connection to the language acquisition of a child. The increase in number of pointing gestures precedes the growth of the productive vocabulary. It has been estimated that the combinations of pointing gesture and single word production in children predicts the skill to combine individual words into longer expressions. children begin to use combinations of pointing gestures and words about four months before they begin to combine individual words into longer expressions. It’s been noticed in earlier studies that different type of pointing gestures has different type of features, for example there is usually sound or word production with declarative pointing but imperative pointing often occur without word production. Methods. The source material of this longitudinal study consisted of a video material of five (n=5) children. For every child’s part, a 30-minute long video of a spontaneous playing or eating situation was analyzed at five different age points (1;0, 1;6, 2;0, 2;6 and 3;0). ELAN-software was used to mark the variables that were observed. The results were analyzed by statistical methods. The use of pointing gestures in different kinds of situations and the features associated with them were surveyed by the means of conversational analysis. Results and conclusions. The use of pointing gestures was at its height at the age point of 1;6, after which their use decreased. Initiatives and declarative pointings were the most commonly occurred functions. Answers and imperative pointings performed by pointing gestures appeared remotely in the entire source material, and no change in them was discovered between the age points. The amount of produced words grew bigger than the amount of pointing gestures a little before the children’s second birthday. Initiatives and declarative pointings were used by the children to draw an adult’s attention or to ask for the naming of objects. The children used imperative pointings most commonly when they wanted an object. Responsive pointings were used by the children to answer questions of adults. Initiatives, and declarative and imperative pointings were almost always related to production of language, unlike the responsive pointings. The results support former research data on the use of pointing gestures, and its connection to the development of children’s productive language acquisition. The results also support the importance of initiative and declarative pointing gestures in the development of a child's speech. The analysing of pointing gestures as a part of children’s interaction can aid to acquire a more thorough understanding of the development of a child’s speech and interactional skills during their first years.