Study of deictic gesture in normally developing Persian- speaking children between 12 to 18 months old: a longitudinal study

Abstract

Introduction: Deictic gesture is one of the first communicative means that infants use it before achieving to verbal skills. In spite of speech, gestures are not encouraged and supported in Iranian culture. The main purpose of this study was to analyze the development of deictic gestures including pointing, giving, reaching and showing in normally developing Persian- speaking children between 12 to 18 months. Materials and Methods: In this prospective observational longitudinal study, purposeful and then snowball non-randomized sampling were used. 11 child-mother interactions were videotaped monthly (for 7 months), in a semi-structure context. The outcome data were coded and the data were statistically analyzed via test of repeated measures (within subject comparison). The reliability of observations recording;#39s coding was investigated with ICC test.. Results: The differences between the mean frequency of pointing gesture from 12 to 18 months old was significant (p0.05), it wasn;#39t significant. Considerably, ICC, as a reliability criterion for observations recording;#39s coding, was achieved 90 percent. Conclusion: This study showed that pointing gesture has increased during 12-to-18 months old. However, showing, reaching and giving remained constant