Object Pragmatics: Culture and Communication – the Bases for Early Cognitive Development

Abstract

El acceso a la versión del editor puede requerir la suscripción del recurso Access to the published version may require subscription 1 Rosa, A. & Valsiner, J. (Eds.). Cambridge Handbook of Sociocultural Psychology (2nd Ed.

Shared Book-Reading in Early Childhood Education: Teachers’ Mediation in Children’s Communicative Development

“…The diversity of communicative signs supports the idea that the use of a book is not evident for young infants and toddlers, as are other objects that are loaded with cultural meaning (Rodríguez et al, 2018). Object use requires a systematic and semiotically mediated action by an adult so that children can progressively internalize the public meanings that a book involves.…”

“…Children need opportunities to participate in educationalcommunicative interactions with others to learn how to use objects according to their social function. This is a gradual cultural appropriation that starts from birth, when infants are typically introduced into communicative niches mediated by the intentional action of adults (Rodríguez et al, 2017(Rodríguez et al, , 2018. Thanks to this semiotic mediation, children gradually abandon their initial undifferentiated, non-canonical or unconventional uses (e.g., sucking, throwing, or banging the object) on their way to learning the cultural uses that are relevant for their community (Rodríguez and Moro, 1999), and so allow them to share common grounds with others (Dimitrova, 2020;Dimitrova and Moro, 2013).…”

On perception as the basis for object concepts: a critical analysis

“…Two things make the pragmatics of the object a consistent approach to research the origin and development of concepts. In the first place, previous empirical findings confirm that children, in the last third of the first year of life (and before with familiar objects), thanks to adults' guidance, come to understand objects and artefacts as signs of their use (Moro & Rodríguez, 2000;Rodríguez, 2006Rodríguez, , 2007Rodríguez & Moro, 1998, 1999Rodríguez et al, 2018). When this happens, objects become functionally permanent (Rodríguez, 2012).…”

“…The pragmatics of the object (Rodríguez et al, 2018;Rodríguez & Moro, 1999 is a framework for the study of human development born at the Geneva School in the 80s that agrees with this premise. It asserts that one of the culturally determined properties of objects (and instruments) is their canonical function (i.e., cups are used for drinking, spoons are used Short title: ON PERCEPTION AS THE BASIS FOR OBJECT CONCEPTS to eat) and that children cannot access this function naturally or immediately .…”

The development of categorisation and conceptual thinking in early childhood: methods and limitations

“…This definition correlates to the concept of affordance proposed by Gibson (1979Gibson ( / 2015. In opposition, the perspective of the pragmatics of the object (Rodríguez et al, 2018;Rodríguez & Moro, 1999) has proven that among this set of possible actions some are culturally privileged and are primarily communicated in interactive situations: the canonical functions of objects. These are not the actions that can, but those that must, be carried out with objects in a given sociocultural and historical context (e.g., cups should be used for drinking).…”