This paper considers the development of consciousness in a pragmatic and semiotic per-spective. Grounded in Vygotsky's pivotal cultural-historical conception of sign, the role ofnonverbal signs through ostensions involving an object that infants address to themselvesis investigated, evidencing the link between the material world and the development ofthe human psyche. The main functions of such ostensions which have been identified arepresented and an analysis of the meaning-making processes underlying these functions issuggested.