Cintia Rodríguez

¿Por qué el niño tiende el objeto hacia el adulto? La construcción social de la significación de los objetos

This paper examines the Ifferent functions of a childs gesture at the prelinguistic level consisting in extending an object towards an adult without having the intention of giving the object. Among these functions it is of interest to underline the adults role as regulator of the childs action once the explicit request has been made; and, the convergence between adult and child with respect to the meanings they attribute to the object. An appropiate unit of analysis for this situation must be one in which child, adult, and object, are considered as an intergrated whole. Any other type of analysis which does not take this into account runs the risk of being only a partial one.

Usos, gestos y vocalizaciones privadas: de la interacción social a la autorregulación

Resumen El papel del lenguaje en la autorregulación ha sido ampliamente estudiado. Sin embargo, hay escasa evidencia sobre la función de autorregulación de los sistemas semióticos prelingüísticos en el desarrollo temprano. Presentamos un estudio de diseño longitudinal para explorar cuándo y cómo los niños/as comienzan a utilizar signos prelingüísticos con una función de autorregulación. Observamos a cuatro bebés en interacción con un adulto y un objeto complejo, a los 11, 13 y 15 meses de edad. Se condujo un análisis microgenético de las observaciones desde una perspectiva semiótica y pragmática del desarrollo y del objeto (Rodríguez y Moro, 1999). Los niños utilizaron distintos signos prelingüísticos privados para autorregular su acción al usar los objetos y/o instrumentos (ostensivos sin instrumento, con instrumento, vocalizaciones de acompañamiento de la acción y evaluadoras). Se describen las categorías utilizadas para caracterizar estos comportamientos y se analizan observaciones que las ilustran.

El uso convencional también hace permanentes a los objetos

ResumenEn este articulo se critica la postura dualista del desarrollo que separa el conocimiento fisico del social como dos dominios que se adquieren por separado y que se refieren al objeto por un lado y a los sujetos y sus interacciones por otro. El argumento se centra en la idea de que el conocimiento del objeto por parte del sujeto esta necesariamente ligado a un proceso de atribucion de significados a traves de la mediacion semiotica. La atribucion de significados evoluciona en un proceso de integracion de las propiedades fisicas de los objetos con los usos convencionales de los mismos. En concreto se resume el cambio en las pautas de interaccion y accion entre los 7 y los 13 a partir de un estudio longitudinal de observacion en interacciones naturales de parejas nino-adulto con tres objetos diferentes. Las pautas de relacion de los adultos cambian en consonancia con las pautas de accion del sujeto sobre el objeto, y varian entre los objetos segun sus distintos usos convencionales. Asi los adultos fa...

First symbols in a girl with Down syndrome: a longitudinal study from 12 to 18 months.

Symbolic uses of objects originate in communicative and triadic contexts (adult-child-object). In this longitudinal study we explore the emergence and development of the first symbolic uses in triadic interaction contexts in a girl with Down syndrome between 12 and 18-months of age. We conducted five sessions of video recording, at 12, 13½, 15, 16½, and 18 months chronological age. At each session we videotaped the girl and her mother interacting with different objects. Data were coded in semiotic categories used in previous studies (Rodríguez & Moro, 1999) and a microgenetic analysis was conducted for each session. The first symbolic uses by the girl appeared at 13½ months. Symbols were of different types and levels of complexity, and the adult had an important role in facilitating the production of these symbols.

Prelinguistic sign mixity and flexibility in interaction

Based upon a reflection on the social origins of human psychological functions the authors propose an analysis of the transmission-appropriation of object uses by the 7 to 13 month old child through interaction with the adult termed baby-object-adult triadic interaction. The analysis is based on Peirce’s semiotics. Semiotic processes involved in the interaction are analysed with categories of icons, indexes and symbols. The authors show the great variety and flexibility of the signs used by the adult but also by the prelinguistic child. They also evidence different types of sign mixity. Peirce described a sign mixity which implies that the uses of signs is never pure but that a given sign may comprise elements of other signs and thus may belong to different sign classes. Here a second type of mixity is demonstrated which can be specified by the simultaneous occurence of sign configurations or estellas belonging to different semiotic repertoires. These may be implemented by the child or the adult or by both within the interaction.

El ojo de Dios no mira signos. Desarrollo temprano y semiótica

Resumen En este artículo analizamos el recorrido de la obra de Ángel Rivière desde que comienza a introducir una lectura semiótica, con la influencia de Leslie o Bateson, hasta que su interés por los signos, desde las tesis de Vygotski, se vuelve sistemático para comprender el desarrollo temprano. A través de la interpretación semiótica de Rivière reflexionamos acerca de algunos de los temas cruciales que articulan desarrollo y signos prelingüísticos, tales como: el signo como inferencia, el significado del signo como función del uso, los signos permiten el análisis microgenético de procesos de interacción on line, los signos y la comunicación intencional, los signos y las interacciones triádicas de acción conjunta, o la difícil articulación entre usos de objetos y signos. También aludimos al interés de introducir una lectura semiótica con los niños de riesgo.

Executive Functions and educational actions in an infant school: private uses and gestures at the end of the first year / Funciones Ejecutivas y acción educativa en la Escuela Infantil: usos y gestos privados al final del primer año

Abstract From the end of the first year children begin to self-regulate their own behaviour. Executive Functions are already present. This paper shows evidence — from a longitudinal case study carried out at an infant school — of the beginnings of the functional use of a spoon by an 11-month-old child through self-regulatory processes with non-linguistic semiotic systems. These involve (1) private gestures including (a) ostensive, (b) pointing, (c) symbolic and (d) emotional gestures; (2) attempts at grasping; and (3) proto-canonical uses of the spoon. This self-regulation process is enhanced by the educational intervention of the teacher who demonstrates its use, invites, re-orientates and evaluates the child’s entry into spoon uses.

How toddlers think with their hands: social and private gestures as evidence of cognitive self-regulation in guided play with objects

ABSTRACT The role of language as a tool to support the self-regulation has been widely studied, yet there is little evidence on the role of prelinguistic communication in the early development of self-regulation. To address this gap, we developed behavioural indicators of preverbal cognitive self-regulation, and described how can parents support it through guided play. We observed 16 children at 14, 16 and 18 months interacting with two complex toys, either independently or with a parent. A microanalytic coding captured a total of 721 gestures, of which 473 were classed as self-regulatory. Children used gestures to support self-regulation in planning monitoring, control, and evaluation. Analysis of parental mediation revealed a relationship between supporting autonomy, providing challenge, responsiveness, effective communication, children’s competence with objects, and self-regulatory gestures. We produced reliable indicators of self-regulation through gestures and characterized effective parental mediation, thus making explicit key social mechanisms to foster self-regulation in preverbal development.

The development of the first symbolic uses in Mexican children from the pragmatics of object / Desarrollo de los primeros usos simbólicos en niños mexicanos desde la pragmática del objeto

Abstract This paper longitudinally studies the emergence and evolution of the first symbolic uses of objects in Mexican children. We observed eight children in triadic interaction with one of their parents and 10 objects in a semi-structured situation at nine, 12, 15 and 18 months old. The children began to use objects symbolically at 12 months, and the duration and frequency increased with age. The highest percentage of the total frequency of symbolic uses, of the four levels identified, was level 1. The frequency of level 4, where two or more symbolic actions occur one after the other, giving rise to ‘symbolic narratives’, increased according to age. These data confirm that knowledge of the rules of canonical uses of objects are the meanings which first symbols base themselves on and that children use the symbolic uses that they are aware of to create ‘symbolic narratives’.

The paradox between the numerically competent baby and the slow learning of two- to four-year-old children / La paradoja entre el bebé numéricamente competente y el lento aprendizaje de los niños de dos a cuatro años de edad

Abstract Since the 1980s, numerous laboratory investigations have been arguing that infants are numerically competent. This work presents a critical review of this line of research. We propose that despite the repertoire of numerical abilities attributed to infants and the seemingly natural character of the very first numbers in the numerical series, the semiotic complexity of their use and comprehension poses a cognitive challenge that children undertake, motivated, supported and often guided by others. This challenge involves a high degree of semiotic organization of the material world as well as an ability to manage early sign systems, systems which children learn how to use during their first years of life and which form the platform on which numbers are based.