An Invitation to an Embodied, Multimodal, and Intersubjective Approach to Development

Abstract

This introductory chapter begins by explaining the origin of this book: a cooperative and interdisciplinary path walked by its authors that led to a conception of developmental psychology in permanent dialogue with the psychology of music, the philosophy of mind, and human movement studies. The overall framework of each chapter is then presented, arising from the confluence of three contemporary points of view: embodied cognition, the multimodal approach to child development, and the second-person perspective in social cognition. Such framework allowed us to revisit some relevant topics in current developmental psychology in a new light, including adult-infant interactions, intersubjective experiences, the development of perceptual skills that allow infants to participate in the interpersonal world, verbal and gestural communication skills, as well as the complexity of play in infancy and early childhood. The chapter also provides an overview of each chapter in the book outlining briefly their thematic connections.