Follow- up the gesture of pointing and looking at early stages of development
Abstract
Joint attention, defined as the visual co-ordination of two individuals directed towards an object of mutual interest, is a nuclear skill that develops during early childhood and is the basis of the future linguistic, emotional capacity of mind theory and Of the general cognition of every person. This phenomenon includes the acquisition of behaviors such as the tracking of gaze and signaling. On the other hand, social vulnerability is a risk factor studied in relation to many variables such as memory, executive functions and different pathologies. In this case, it is proposed to investigate the modulation that social vulnerability exerts on the abilities of followup of gaze and signaling in early childhood. The sample consisted of 18 infants between 9 and 13 months. Communication behaviors were measured from the follow-up of the gaze and from the infant’s pointing to distant objects marked by the evaluator. The latency and duration of follow-up behavior were measured through applied behavioral analysis. Social vulnerability was measured using the Social Economic Level Scale (NES) (INDEC, 2000). The results reflect that there are no differences in the abilities to follow the look and pointing according to the socioeconomic level. These results highlight that although the socioeconomic level produces limitations in communicative skills, there would still be no visible effects in the early stages of development. Further research must be carried out to corroborate this claim.
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