A main source for the ages
A Prelinguistic Gestural Universal of Human Communication
Ulf Liszkowski, Penny Brown, Tara Callaghan, Akira Takada, Conny de Vos · 2012 · Cognitive Science
- Children
- 96 babies
- Where
- Seven very different communities in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Japan, Peru, Mexico and Canada
- Ages
- 7 to 17 months
- How
- Researchers filmed each baby once, carried by a parent around a room full of interesting things
- What it found
- In every community, most babies started pointing with their index finger between 10 and 14 months, with no real difference between communities. About 1 in 3 babies aged 7 to 9 months pointed this way, and all 16 babies aged 15 to 17 months did.
- Limits
- Each baby was seen only once, the groups were small, and the room was set up to encourage pointing.