• Coordinating attention with the speaker, • Forming a link between the word (signifier) and the referent (signified). Following the speaker’s eye gaze establishes the co-ordinate attention which is necessary for vocabulary acquisition. The Development of Gaze Following Coordinated attention is created when one follows the focus of attention of speaker. It enables children to acquire the vocabulary. The focus of attention of a person is indicated by the variety of cues. One of them is eye gaze. Eye gaze is most often accompanied by one’s head turn. Thus the term “gaze following” involves the behavior of gaze and head movements. stated that Eye gaze is a boisterous cue. Magicians routinely use it to play their trick. They misdirect attention of people during the trick. If the magician would …show more content…
However at age near two years, children become adapt to shifting attention between multiple stimuli. Gaze Following in the Service of Vocabulary Acquisition: In vocabulary acquisition, the connection of the signified and signifier is mandatory. For this, it is essential that the attention of children must be drawn to the object in such a way that it would stand distinguished than all other objects, like an object placed in spotlight. At age of two years in young children eye gaze alone is sufficient to support vocabulary acquisition. In an experiment researcher Hollich and his colleagues (2000) found that if the spatial location of the target object is changed in teaching and test, a child of nineteenth months will not demonstrate word acquisition. However on contrary a two year old will successfully create robust signified & signifier link. Not until 18 months novel words serve as cues to get children’s attention for the target objects. But at the age of two years these novel words help children to co-ordinate attention and acquire