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.

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.

Chapter 1. An invitation to embodied, multimodal and intersubjective approach to development and an overview of the chapters in this book

Chapter 2. The infant-directed improvised performances: what they are and what happens through them

Chapter 3. Infant-directed improvised performances, protoconversations and action songs during the first year of life

Chapter 4. Early reciprocity:  temporal coordination and modality behavior in parental imitation and affect attunement

Chapter 5. Rhythm as a prototypical example of the relationship between intersubjective and perceptual development during the first year of life

Chapter 6. The development of multisensory perception of temporal amodal information

Chapter 7. The transition from early bimodal gesture-word combinations to grammatical speech

Chapter 8. Multimodal expression in communicative functions gestures, vocalizations, and the contribution of early musicality

Chapter 9. Forms of vitality play

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 of Semiology 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).