Developing communication through objects: Ostensive gestures as the first gestures in children's development

The first gestures that children produce intentionally to communicate with others, make sense of the world around them, and control their behavior are ostensive gestures of showing and giving; these are also the first gestures that parents and teachers use to communicate with children and to regulate their behavior in their first months of life. Ostensive gestures are proximal gestures in which the child’s hand is occupied by an object. In this sense, objects have a role in shaping children’s first communicative acts: They are the first referents children communicate about and the first means they use to share references with others.

Despite their relevance to communicative development, a literature review highlights that there have been few studies investigating ostensive gestures in the first three years of life, while the study of distal gestures, especially pointing gestures, has prevailed. Some authors relate the relative absence of ostensive gestures in the literature to methodological issues that hinder their identification. Others question their nature as “true gestures” because they involve children’s contact with objects and therefore there can be doubt about their underlying intentionality.

Increasing evidence has shown that ostensive gestures fulfill early communicative and self-regulatory functions from the end of the first year of life. These functions are very similar to the ones that are later observed in more complex gestures, such as pointing and symbolic gestures. This similarity provides a clear idea of progression in gesture development.

Based on these ideas, this article has two main purposes: to describe ostensive gestures and reaffirm their important part in gesture development, and to explore the hypothesis that ostensive gestures not only precede pointing in development, but that they are one of pointing’s precursors, providing clues to the understanding of intentional communication’s origin.