Abstract:The aim of this paper is to conduct an exploratory study and compare the development of pointing and its specific use as self-reference in French sign language (LSF) with the development of pointing and self reference in French. Personal reference is expressed through nominal expressions and pronouns in French. In LSF, the signs used for personal reference have the same form as pointing gestures, which are present in children's communication system from the age of 10-11 months (Bates et. al 1977, Clark 1978. Continuity between pointing gestures and signs is questioned by Bellugi & Klima (1981) and Petitto (1986), who indicate that signing children's pre-linguistic pointing gestures are different from signs and correspond to two distinct categories: indexical and symbolic. We present arguments for a continuity hypothesis between pointing gestures and signs. We coded two longitudinal datasets of a French-speaking child and a French Sign Language signing child aged seven months to three years, filmed at home with their mothers once a month. Our analyses enabled us to underline the continuity between the deaf child's pointing gestures and their incorporation as markers of personal reference into the child's sign language system. Keywords: pointing; self-reference; first language acquisition; sign language acquisition This paper explores the issue of the development of pointing, focusing on self-points within a deaf signing child's emerging system of self-reference, compared to a hearing child's use of pointing and self-words. Since only one dataset of a French deaf signing child has ever been collected, this paper is a case study. We present arguments for a continuity hypothesis between first pointing gestures and signs, which can only be confirmed after more data is collected in LSF (Langue des Signes Française -French sign language). However, our analyses offer perspectives in line with significant studies (Pizzuto 2007), aimed at clarifying the connections between the vocal and the gestural modality in early development, and the more general cognitive origins and developmental roots of language (Volterra, Erting, 1990). Comparisons between hearing children who communicate in two modalities (visual and gestural) and deaf children who communicate in one modality offer valuable insights into the relation between pre-linguistic communication and language. In a usage-based and constructivist approach of language acquisition (Tomasello 2003), the study of pointing is situated within a more general approach of the child's interactive experience and competence and takes into account the semantic and pragmatic dimensions of the child's language use (personal reference), as well as parental input. Pointing is thus viewed in terms of its function in dialogue.