P. Morissette et al., RELATIONS BETWEEN JOINT ATTENTION DURING THE PREVERBAL STAGE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF REFERENTIAL LANGUAGE, International journal of psychology, 30(4), 1995, pp. 481-498
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.