Deictic Gesture

A deictic gesture is a pointing or indicating motion (typically with a finger, but also with gaze, head, or tool) that directs another person's attention to a specific referent in the shared environment. In face-to-face tutoring, deictic gestures are central to effective instruction: the helper points directly at the button to press, anchoring visual attention and bypassing the need for verbal description. Assistive systems increasingly try to simulate deictic gesture through on-screen highlights, cursor animations, or robotic pointers - an approach particularly useful for users with cognitive load, memory, or language limitations who find text-only instructions hard to map to the interface.