DOI•
The infant’s creative vitality, in projects of self-discovery and shared meaning
11 Nov 2014-
TL;DR: A theory of the child's contribution to cultural learning that may be used to guide practice in early education and care of children in their families and communities and in artificially planned and technically structured modern worlds of bewildering diversity is presented in this article.
Abstract: This paper presents the child as a creature born with the spirit of an inquisitive and creative human being, seeking understanding of what to do with body and mind in a world of invented possibilities. He or she is intuitively sociable, seeking affectionate relations with companions who are willing to share the pleasure and adventure of doing and knowing with 'human sense'. Recent research traces signs of the child's impulses and feelings from before birth, and follows their efforts to master experience through stages of self-creating in enjoyable and hopeful companionship. Sensitive timing of rhythms in action and playful invention show age-related advances of creative vitality as the body and brain grow. Much of shared meaning is understood and played with before a child can benefit from school instruction in a prescribed curriculum of the proper ways to use elaborate symbolic conventions. We begin with the theory of James Mark Baldwin, who observed that infants and young children are instinctive experimenters, repeating experience by imitating their own as well as other's actions, accommodating to the resources of the shared world and assimilating new experiences as learned ideas for action. We develop a theory of the child's contribution to cultural learning that may be used to guide practice in early education and care of children in their families and communities and in artificially planned and technically structured modern worlds of bewildering diversity.
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TL;DR: It is concluded that shared rituals of culture and practical techniques develop from a fundamental psycho-motor structure with its basic, vital impulses for action and generative process of thought-in-action that express an integrated, imaginative, and sociable Self.
Abstract: Narrative, the creation of imaginative projects and experiences displayed in expressions of movement and voice, is how human cooperative understanding grows. Human understanding places the character and qualities of objects and events of interest within stories that portray intentions, feelings, and ambitions, and how one cares about them. Understanding the development of narrative is therefore essential for understanding the development of human intelligence, but its early origins are obscure. We identify the origins of narrative in the innate sensorimotor intelligence of a hypermobile human body and trace the ontogenesis of narrative form from its earliest expression in movement. Intelligent planning, with self-awareness, is evident in the gestures and motor expressions of the mid-gestation fetus. After birth, single intentions become serially organized into projects with increasingly ambitious distal goals and social meaning. The infant imitates others' actions in shared tasks, learns conventional cultural practices, and adapts his own inventions, then names topics of interest. Through every stage, in simple intentions of fetal movement, in social imitations of the neonate, in early proto-conversations and collaborative play of infants and talk of children and adults, the narrative form of creative agency with it four-part structure of 'introduction,' 'development,' 'climax,' and 'resolution' is present. We conclude that shared rituals of culture and practical techniques develop from a fundamental psycho-motor structure with its basic, vital impulses for action and generative process of thought-in-action that express an integrated, imaginative, and sociable Self. This basic structure is evident before birth and invariant in form throughout life. Serial organization of single, non-verbal actions into complex projects of expressive and explorative sense-making become conventional meanings and explanations with propositional narrative power. Understanding the root of narrative in embodied meaning-making in this way is important for practical work in therapy and education, and for advancing philosophy and neuroscience.
88 citations
01 Jan 2017
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present the child as a creature born with the spirit of an inquisitive and creative human being, seeking understanding of what to do with body and mind in a world of invented possibilities.
Abstract: This chapter presents the child as a creature born with the spirit of an inquisitive and creative human being, seeking understanding of what to do with body and mind in a world of invented possibilities. He or she is intuitively sociable, seeking affectionate relations with companions who are willing to share the pleasure and adventure of doing and knowing with ‘human sense’. Recent research traces signs of the child’s impulses and feelings from before birth, and follows their efforts to master experience through stages of self-creating in enjoyable and hopeful companionship. Sensitive timing of rhythms in action and playful invention show age-related advances of creative vitality as the body and brain grow. Much of shared meaning is understood and played with before a child can benefit from school instruction in a prescribed curriculum of the proper ways to use elaborate symbolic conventions. We begin with the theory of James Mark Baldwin, who observed that infants and young children are instinctive experimenters, repeating experience by imitating their own as well as other’s actions, accommodating to the resources of the shared world and assimilating new experiences as learned ideas for action. We argue that the child’s contribution to cultural learning is a good guide for practice in early education and care of children in their families and communities and in artificially planned and technically structured modern worlds of bewildering diversity.
39 citations
Cites background from "The infant’s creative vitality, in ..."
...A search for understanding of this vital inter-mental learning is leading infant pedagogy today to a reappreciation of the child’s contribution to transmission of knowledge and skills (Trevarthen, Gratier and Osborne, 2014; Trevarthen and Delafield-Butt, 2015)....
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TL;DR: A precise prospective spatiotemporal organization of neonatal arm movements is demonstrated for the first time and it is demonstrated that at‐risk infants exhibit reduced sensorimotor control.
Abstract: Prospective motor control moves the body into the future, from where one is to where one wants to be. It is a hallmark of intentionality. But its origin in development is uncertain. In this study, we tested whether or not the arm movements of newborn infants were prospectively controlled. We measured the spatiotemporal organization of 480 full‐term neonatal arm movements and 384 arm movements of prematurely born infants at‐risk for neurodevelopmental disorder. We found 75% of healthy term‐birth neonatal movements and 68% of prematurely born infant movements conformed to the τ G‐coupling model of prospective sensorimotor control. Prospective coupling values were significantly reduced in the latter (p = .010, r = .087). In both cases prospectively controlled movements were tightly organized by fixed‐duration units with a base duration of 218 ms and additional temporal units of 145 ms. Yet distances remained constant. Thus, we demonstrate for the first time a precise prospective spatiotemporal organization of neonatal arm movements and demonstrate that at‐risk infants exhibit reduced sensorimotor control. Prospective motor control is a hallmark of primary sensorimotor intentionality and gives a strong embodied foundation to conscious motor agency.
30 citations
TL;DR: A culturally different onset of development of joint attention in pick-up between Japan and Scotland is demonstrated, which reflects cultures of everyday interaction.
Abstract: This study examines the early development of cultural differences in a simple, embodied and intersubjective engagement between mothers putting down, picking up, and carrying their infants between Japan and Scotland. Eleven Japanese and 10 Scottish mothers with their 6- and then 9-month-old infants participated. Video and motion analyses were employed to measure motor patterns of mothers’ approach to their infants, as well as their infants’ collaborative responses during put-down, pick-up and carry phases. Japanese and Scottish mothers approached their infants with different styles and their infants responded differently to the short duration of separation during the trial. A greeting-like behavior of the arms and hands was prevalent in Scottish mothers’ approach, but not in Japanese mothers’ approach. Japanese mothers typically kneeled before making the final reach to pick up their children, giving a closer, apparently gentler final approach of torso than Scottish mothers who bent at the waist in larger movements of the torso. Measures of the gap closure between the mother’s hand to infant’s head revealed variably longer duration and distance gap closures with greater velocity by Scottish mothers than by Japanese mothers. Further, the sequence of Japanese mothers’ coordinated body actions on approach, contact, pick-up, and hold was more coordinated at six months than at nine months. Scottish mothers were generally more variable on approach. Measures of infant participation and expressivity indicate more active participation in the negotiation during the separation and pick-up phases by Scottish infants. This paper demonstrates a culturally different onset of development of joint attention in pick-up. These differences reflect cultures of every-day interaction.
29 citations
TL;DR: Early Childhood Education (ECE) typically positions the child at the centre of their own learning, with a high degree of child-initiated and child-led experiences as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Early Childhood Education (ECE) typically positions the child at the centre of their own learning, with a high degree of child-initiated and child-led experiences. As such, ECE is often characteriz...
17 citations
Cites background from "The infant’s creative vitality, in ..."
...…socioemotional development and social competence, spanning several disciplines from infant mother attachment and communication in Neuroscience (Trevarthen & Delafield-Butt, 2015), socio-emotional competence in Developmental and Social Psychology (Löfdahl & Hägglund, 2006) to peer…...
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...Such empowerment of children is informed by the long-stemmed interest in children’s socioemotional development and social competence, spanning several disciplines from infant mother attachment and communication in Neuroscience (Trevarthen & Delafield-Butt, 2015), socio-emotional competence in Developmental and Social Psychology (Löfdahl & Hägglund, 2006) to peer interactions and behaviours in Education (Broadhead, 2001; Parten, 1932)....
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References
More filters
TL;DR: It is concluded that shared rituals of culture and practical techniques develop from a fundamental psycho-motor structure with its basic, vital impulses for action and generative process of thought-in-action that express an integrated, imaginative, and sociable Self.
Abstract: Narrative, the creation of imaginative projects and experiences displayed in expressions of movement and voice, is how human cooperative understanding grows. Human understanding places the character and qualities of objects and events of interest within stories that portray intentions, feelings, and ambitions, and how one cares about them. Understanding the development of narrative is therefore essential for understanding the development of human intelligence, but its early origins are obscure. We identify the origins of narrative in the innate sensorimotor intelligence of a hypermobile human body and trace the ontogenesis of narrative form from its earliest expression in movement. Intelligent planning, with self-awareness, is evident in the gestures and motor expressions of the mid-gestation fetus. After birth, single intentions become serially organized into projects with increasingly ambitious distal goals and social meaning. The infant imitates others' actions in shared tasks, learns conventional cultural practices, and adapts his own inventions, then names topics of interest. Through every stage, in simple intentions of fetal movement, in social imitations of the neonate, in early proto-conversations and collaborative play of infants and talk of children and adults, the narrative form of creative agency with it four-part structure of 'introduction,' 'development,' 'climax,' and 'resolution' is present. We conclude that shared rituals of culture and practical techniques develop from a fundamental psycho-motor structure with its basic, vital impulses for action and generative process of thought-in-action that express an integrated, imaginative, and sociable Self. This basic structure is evident before birth and invariant in form throughout life. Serial organization of single, non-verbal actions into complex projects of expressive and explorative sense-making become conventional meanings and explanations with propositional narrative power. Understanding the root of narrative in embodied meaning-making in this way is important for practical work in therapy and education, and for advancing philosophy and neuroscience.
88 citations
01 Jan 2017
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present the child as a creature born with the spirit of an inquisitive and creative human being, seeking understanding of what to do with body and mind in a world of invented possibilities.
Abstract: This chapter presents the child as a creature born with the spirit of an inquisitive and creative human being, seeking understanding of what to do with body and mind in a world of invented possibilities. He or she is intuitively sociable, seeking affectionate relations with companions who are willing to share the pleasure and adventure of doing and knowing with ‘human sense’. Recent research traces signs of the child’s impulses and feelings from before birth, and follows their efforts to master experience through stages of self-creating in enjoyable and hopeful companionship. Sensitive timing of rhythms in action and playful invention show age-related advances of creative vitality as the body and brain grow. Much of shared meaning is understood and played with before a child can benefit from school instruction in a prescribed curriculum of the proper ways to use elaborate symbolic conventions. We begin with the theory of James Mark Baldwin, who observed that infants and young children are instinctive experimenters, repeating experience by imitating their own as well as other’s actions, accommodating to the resources of the shared world and assimilating new experiences as learned ideas for action. We argue that the child’s contribution to cultural learning is a good guide for practice in early education and care of children in their families and communities and in artificially planned and technically structured modern worlds of bewildering diversity.
39 citations
TL;DR: A precise prospective spatiotemporal organization of neonatal arm movements is demonstrated for the first time and it is demonstrated that at‐risk infants exhibit reduced sensorimotor control.
Abstract: Prospective motor control moves the body into the future, from where one is to where one wants to be. It is a hallmark of intentionality. But its origin in development is uncertain. In this study, we tested whether or not the arm movements of newborn infants were prospectively controlled. We measured the spatiotemporal organization of 480 full‐term neonatal arm movements and 384 arm movements of prematurely born infants at‐risk for neurodevelopmental disorder. We found 75% of healthy term‐birth neonatal movements and 68% of prematurely born infant movements conformed to the τ G‐coupling model of prospective sensorimotor control. Prospective coupling values were significantly reduced in the latter (p = .010, r = .087). In both cases prospectively controlled movements were tightly organized by fixed‐duration units with a base duration of 218 ms and additional temporal units of 145 ms. Yet distances remained constant. Thus, we demonstrate for the first time a precise prospective spatiotemporal organization of neonatal arm movements and demonstrate that at‐risk infants exhibit reduced sensorimotor control. Prospective motor control is a hallmark of primary sensorimotor intentionality and gives a strong embodied foundation to conscious motor agency.
30 citations
TL;DR: A culturally different onset of development of joint attention in pick-up between Japan and Scotland is demonstrated, which reflects cultures of everyday interaction.
Abstract: This study examines the early development of cultural differences in a simple, embodied and intersubjective engagement between mothers putting down, picking up, and carrying their infants between Japan and Scotland. Eleven Japanese and 10 Scottish mothers with their 6- and then 9-month-old infants participated. Video and motion analyses were employed to measure motor patterns of mothers’ approach to their infants, as well as their infants’ collaborative responses during put-down, pick-up and carry phases. Japanese and Scottish mothers approached their infants with different styles and their infants responded differently to the short duration of separation during the trial. A greeting-like behavior of the arms and hands was prevalent in Scottish mothers’ approach, but not in Japanese mothers’ approach. Japanese mothers typically kneeled before making the final reach to pick up their children, giving a closer, apparently gentler final approach of torso than Scottish mothers who bent at the waist in larger movements of the torso. Measures of the gap closure between the mother’s hand to infant’s head revealed variably longer duration and distance gap closures with greater velocity by Scottish mothers than by Japanese mothers. Further, the sequence of Japanese mothers’ coordinated body actions on approach, contact, pick-up, and hold was more coordinated at six months than at nine months. Scottish mothers were generally more variable on approach. Measures of infant participation and expressivity indicate more active participation in the negotiation during the separation and pick-up phases by Scottish infants. This paper demonstrates a culturally different onset of development of joint attention in pick-up. These differences reflect cultures of every-day interaction.
29 citations
TL;DR: Early Childhood Education (ECE) typically positions the child at the centre of their own learning, with a high degree of child-initiated and child-led experiences as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Early Childhood Education (ECE) typically positions the child at the centre of their own learning, with a high degree of child-initiated and child-led experiences. As such, ECE is often characteriz...
17 citations