Hanging out with a one-year-old just a couple days ago, I was impressed with the power of his pointing finger. Pointing left, right and center, it had the adults around him naming objects and colors. His little pointer compelled us to keep the stroller moving when we had paused. That tiny gesture from the littlest in the crowd had all scrambling to please him. The imperial pointer!
I kept thinking about it. Seems like a rather sophisticated coordination of fine motor movement coupled with an awareness of the both near and distant environment and used to convey curiosity as well as command a desire. Turns out, this finger communication is reliably predictive of good language ability. Children at this age who used a finger to point, rather than an open hand, generally had better language skills a year later.
He may be holding court from Daddy’s arms or his stroller chariot, but this little prince was surely ruling his kingdom….and showing promise of strong verbal skills in his future!
Lüke, C., Grimminger, A., Rohlfing, K. J., Liszkowski, U., & Ritterfeld, U. (2017). In Infants’ Hands: Identification of Preverbal Infants at Risk for Primary Language Delay. Child Development, 88(2), 484-492.
21Moons 