The production of this and that by young children

Abstract

Many studies have considered the child's developing comprehension of the deictic terms this and that, used to refer to spatial proximity and distance. This is in contrast with the paucity of research into the child's early use of these terms. In the present study, three-year-old children produced both of these deictic terms and each was accompanied by characteristic specific gestures. This was accompanied by a picking up and handling of the object being referred to, while the gestural support for that was either a point or a proffering of the object, depending on spatial contextual restrictions. From this evidence, it is argued that children can use a pragmatic system of deictic contrasts, integrating both verbal and gestural aspects.