Deixis – a fundamental part of communication – involves combinations of speech, gesture and eye-gaze, yet little is known about the temporal dynamics of this coordination. The authors analysed eye-gaze, pointing gestures and verbal productions in 514 deictic episodes during triadic, semi-naturalistic, book-reading sessions performed by Italian children (1;08–2;07) and their caregivers. Results show three new findings. First, deictic communication is overwhelmingly preceded and accompanied by shared attention (of consistent duration) on an object, and only sometimes by disjoint attention. Second, children are synchronously multimodal (conveying information via speech, pointing gesture and eye-gaze) in their deictic communications. Third, the form of deictic communication used is not related to the complexity of the linguistic structures of the sample. Deictic communication is remarkably consistent in children ranging from approximately 1;08 to 2;07 years of age.

Deixis –通信的基本部分–涉及语音，手势和视线的组合，但对这种协调的时间动态知之甚少。作者分析了意大利儿童（1; 08–2; 07）进行的三合会，半自然主义，读书会期间514次典型发作中的视线，指向手势和言语表达。结果显示了三个新发现。首先，热烈的交流压倒性地先于并伴随着对一个对象的共同关注（持续时间一致），而有时只有不相干的关注。其次，孩子们在他们的虔诚沟通中是同步多模态的（通过语音，指向手势和注视传达信息）。第三，专门的交流方式与样本语言结构的复杂性无关。在大约1; 08至2; 07岁的儿童中，积极的交流非常一致。