Moving and Interacting 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