The Emergence of Referential Understanding: Pointing and the Comprehension of Object Names

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Abstract
This study investigates the relationship between the emergence of understanding of object names and the development of pointing during the first year of life. Detailed records of the developing lexical comprehension of six children were obtained from the age of six months together with information about the use of pointing gestures. A comparison of the development of comprehension and the use of pointing revealed the existence of a very specific relationship: there was a highly significant positive correlation between the first appearance of pointing and the first understanding of object names. There was no relationship between the development of pointing and more general measures of comprehension development. The significance of these findings for accounts of the development of referential understanding is discussed.