ABSTRACT
Everyone acknowledges that very small children can communicate before they put words together. Using very little language they are able to express their wants and needs as well as to sustain interactions. One of the resources available to them before they have developed sophisticated verbal skills is the use of non-verbal behaviours, such as gazing. This case study documents how one child (age 16,3-22 months) used gaze in relation to talk while interacting with her mother. Following a brief review of the literature on the relationship between talking and looking, the results of this naturalistic study will be presented. The significance of looking at the mother will be discussed in terms of how it functions for the language-learning child, for the mother, and the insights it can provide for the researcher interested in the development of communicative competence.
