The perception of an action and its production are inextricably linked. This entails that, during development, the skills that children are able to perform influence their perception of others\\\' actions. The present dissertation aimed to investigate the role of children’s experience on the perception of actions in three distinctive areas: manual actions performed by one person (individual action), manual actions performed by two people (joint action), and a conversation between two people. In order to succeed in each of the three areas, children have to acquire new skills and do so successively during their first three years of life. The methodological approach of this work was to measure the gaze behaviour of children, aged 6 months to 3 years, and adults during the observation of visually presented actions, which provided information on whether they were able to anticipate action goals. The findings obtained generally show an influence of experience on the anticipation of action goals in each of the three areas. First, a link between action and perception is not established as soon as an action emerges. There is at least some experience necessary for its development. Second, infants with no coordinated joint-action skills themselves anticipate the goals of joint action less well than those of individual action. Adults with considerable joint-action skills anticipate both equally well. And third, the course of a conversation can only be reliably anticipated by children aged 3 years and adults, whereas younger children shift their gaze between speakers randomly. Furthermore, only at the age of 3 years, did intonation support children’s anticipation of conversations.

The perception of an action and its production are inextricably linked. This entails that, during development, the skills that children are able to perform influence their perception of others\\\'' actions. The present dissertation aimed to investigate the role of children’s experience on the perception of actions in three distinctive areas: manual actions performed by one person (individual action), manual actions performed by two people (joint action), and a conversation between two people. In order to succeed in each of the three areas, children have to acquire new skills and do so successively during their first three years of life. The methodological approach of this work was to measure the gaze behaviour of children, aged 6 months to 3 years, and adults during the observation of visually presented actions, which provided information on whether they were able to anticipate action goals. The findings obtained generally show an influence of experience on the anticipation of action goals in each of the three areas. First, a link between action and perception is not established as soon as an action emerges. There is at least some experience necessary for its development. Second, infants with no coordinated joint-action skills themselves anticipate the goals of joint action less well than those of individual action. Adults with considerable joint-action skills anticipate both equally well. And third, the course of a conversation can only be reliably anticipated by children aged 3 years and adults, whereas younger children shift their gaze between speakers randomly. Furthermore, only at the age of 3 years, did intonation support children’s anticipation of conversations.