UCSB Declarative and Imperative Pointing Discussion Reply

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1.The difference between declarative pointing and imperative pointing for infants presents more of a communicative challenge for three reasons. Declarative pointing is dependent on responses and attention to specific objects, feelings, and reactions. A child who responds to adults based on emotional reactions may alter their interactions when they do not receive acknowledgment and verbal recognition during their social interaction. Imperative pointing on the other hand directs the child’s desires, needs, and nonverbal requests simply by using a directive point. Once the child can understand the correlations between facial expressions, and verbal recognition of an adult, the child will continue to actively engage. The child will stop interactions when they do not receive positive reinforcement and feedback.

2.Pointing is a huge milestone in a child’s development. Imperative pointing is to ask for something from an adult, such as asking for a milk bottle or cookies or an object that’s out of their reach. Declarative pointing is used to obtain attention from the adult or to draw someone’s attention to an interesting object or to another person who just walked in the room.Research shows that children produce and understand declarative pointing later than imperative pointing.

Imperative pointing is merely used with the intention to use the partner or the adult as a tool to achieve their goals. Whereas declarative pointing is more challenging for infants because it relates to understanding other people’s intentions and interests. Infants process intersubjective awareness and the recognition of their partner’s knowledge and intention before sharing information about an object or person their partner will find interesting.

There are two subtypes of declarative pointing:

Expressive: intention is to share an emotional reaction.

Informative: intention is to share information about something their partners will find interesting.