Deixis in the Graphic Domain - Young Children’s Comprehension of Arrows and Markers

Growing up in graphically saturated environments, children encounter arrows and markers daily. We probe their developing mastery of these symbols by continuously sampling children between two and six years of age in object-choice tasks. Study 1 (N = 72; 24–59 months) establishes that children can read both arrows and markers just before their third birthday. By pitting spatial proximity against pointing direction in ambiguous displays, Study 2 (N = 98; 25–72 months) reveals a striking shift: children favor proximity until age four, only prioritizing direction by age five. Study 3 (N = 48; 36–59 months) demonstrates that this transition coincides with the ability to generalize directional interpretations to novel symbols, suggesting that this age marks the beginning of abstract symbol interpretation. Together, these studies track the development of young children’s comprehension of deixis in the graphic domain – one of the earliest forms of graphic communication children acquire.