Moving and Interacting in Infancy and Early Childhood : An Embodied, Intersubjective, and Multimodal Approach to the Interpersonal World

This book introduces studies on infant and early childhood development that are in a permanent dialogue with the psychology of music, the philosophy of mind, and human movement studies. They are based on an innovative framework that combines embodied cognition, the multimodal approach to child development, and the second-person perspective in social cognition. This frame of reference allows authors to revisit relevant topics in developmental psychology, such as adult-infant interactions; early intersubjective experiences; the development of perceptual, verbal and gestural communication skills; as well as the complexity of play in infancy and early childhood.

In the field of infancy and early childhood studies, the three viewpoints brought together in this volume had a clear innovative impact. Embodied psychology showed the body to be the primary agent in the interactions that shape the infant’s psyche. The second-person perspective exhibited the direct, transparent, I-Thou contact involved in the first patterns of reciprocity between adult and infant, and the multimodal theory of perceptual development revealed an infant immersed in a multisensory environment conveying information to all perceptual systems as a unified experience. The studies presented in this volume combine these three viewpoints and link them through the use of analytical tools and concepts from the temporal arts (music and dance). This way of conducting empirical research on some central topics in early infancy led to an aesthetic conception of development that emphasizes bodily experience, temporal affects and their intertwining with symbolic capacities

Moving and Interacting in Infancy and Early Childhood: An Embodied, Intersubjective, and Multimodal Approach to the Interpersonal World will provide innovative tools for developmental and cognitive psychologists studying the development of early socio-cognitive skills in infants and young children, and will also serve as a rich source of information for researchers and practitioners in other fields, such as education and nursing, who can benefit from cutting-edge knowledge in developmental sciences.

Silvia Español holds a PhD. in Psychology from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). She is currently a researcher at the Latin America Institute of Social Research, Faculty of Latin America Social Sciences/National Scientific and Technical Research Council (IICSAL, FLACSO/CONICET, Argentina). She also coordinates the Research Group on Socio-Cognitive Processes in Infancy and Early Childhood at the Psychology of Knowledge and Learning Department (FLACSO, Argentina), and is a Faculty member of the MSc. in Cognitive Psychology as well as Director of FLACSO's postgraduate virtual course The baby´s life: psychological development, scaffolding and nurturing environment. She is a certified Somatic Educator in the Feldenkrais Method. Her work deals with cognitive developmental psychology, the psychology of music, and the study of human movement.

Mauricio Martínez has a PhD. in Psychology from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). He participates in the Research Group on Socio-Cognitive Processes in Infancy and Early Childhood at Psychology of Knowledge and Learning at the Faculty of Latin America Social Sciences (FLACSO). He is Professor of Developmental Psychology at Universidad Abierta Interamericana (UAI) and Faculty member of the MsC. in Cognitive Psychology (FLACSO). He also teaches in the post-graduate virtual course The baby's life: psychological development, scaffolding and nurturing environmen” at FLACSO. His research focuses on early perceptual and intersubjective development, childhood play and early intervention in autism spectrum disorders. He is author of Intervención psicoeducativa para niños con trastorno del espectro autista [Psychoeducational intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders] (2015).

Fernando G. Rodríguez is PhD. in Educational Sciences from Universidad de Buenos Aires. He has carried out research and training stays in Germany (DAAD) in Linguistics and Semiotics. He is currently Professor ofSemiology and Human Communication. He is member of the Research Group of Socio-Cognitive Processes in Infancy and Early Childhood at the Psychology of Knowledge and Learning Department (FLACSO, Argentina). As a researcher, his work is concerned with the development of communicative skills in young children, the structure of semiotic processes in general and the relationships between mind, sign and corporeality. Author of Semántica y pragmática en la comunicación del niño pregramatical. Gesto y palabra antes de la articulación morfosintáctica [Semantics and pragmatics in the communication of the pregrammatical child. Gesture and speech before morphosyntactic articulation] (2021) and co-editor of Los signos del cuerpo. Enfoques multimodales de la mente y el lenguaje [The signs of the body. Multimodal approaches to mind and language] (2018).