The signs that humans can direct at others and at themselves are not restricted to the field of language; indeed, the possibility of self-directing signs does not arise with speech. At very early stages of development, certain pre-verbal signs -gestures- can be self-directed. However, also at a very early stage there seem to appear certain non-linguistic signs that do not fit into what is normally considered a gesture, which can apparently also be self-directed. The object of this work is to outline a specific evolutionary path of the capacity to self-direct signs. Firstly, I will address pioneering gestures in development, which have elicited particular attention in my current research, such as the pointing gesture or the object recognition gesture. Then, standing on less firm ground, I will comment the possibility of self-directing other type of gestures –the “enactive symbols”- described by Rivière. Finally, on increasingly shaky ground, I will conclude by commenting on the one hand, the early emergence of signs that cannot be strictly considered as gestures, related to what some also consider a language -dance- and, on the other hand, the apparent capacity to self-direct these same gestures. My goal is to stray from the fixed path leading from gestures to words or speech and to begin to follow side paths, branches if you will, with a significantly different signing foliage.