RELATIONS BETWEEN JOINT ATTENTION DURING THE PREVERBAL STAGE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF REFERENTIAL LANGUAGE

The purpose of this longitudinal research was to investigate the exist ence of a preverbal ''referential complex'' in infants, a complex made up of the behaviours that are devoted to the establishment of joint a ttention. The link between these behaviours and language was also anal ysed. Twenty-four babies were seen six times from 6 to 24 months. Prod uction and comprehension of manual pointing, as well as comprehension of visual pointing, were assessed. Results showed a link between the c omprehension of the two kinds of pointing. Production of pointing, whi le being independent from these behaviours, was the only behaviour to correlate with language. Thus, unified referential complex could not b e inferred in preverbal infants. Implications for a possible continuit y between preverbal and verbal references are discussed.