Development of early expressive and communicative action: Reinterpreting the evidence from a dynamic systems perspective.

TLDR

Dynamic systems theory posits that infant expressive and communicative actions emerge from asynchronous interactions among physiological, cognitive, behavioral, and social elements, rather than from centrally coordinated developmental stages. The study introduces and applies a systems approach to investigate how infants develop expressive and communicative action during their first year. The authors employ a dynamic systems framework to analyze developmental trajectories of expressive and communicative behaviors, considering age, context, and task-dependent control parameters. This approach explains previously puzzling phenomena such as early mature forms of expression, asynchronous component development, discontinuous shifts from continuous processes, and adult influence on communicative development.

Abstract

A systems approach is introduced and applied to the development of expressive and communicative action of infants in the first year of life. In this approach, expressive and communicative actions are organized, as part of cooperative systems with other elements of the infants' physiology, cognition, behavior, and social environment. A systems approach presumes that order arises dynamically as a result of the interaction between the cooperating elements that are changing asynchronously, rather than as the result of centrally coordinated developmental change that is synchronous across domains. The systems approach further assumes that the control parameter responsible for eliciting developmental change may be different depending on age, context, and task. It offers a means to understand previously unexplained developmental phenomena: the appearance of mature forms of expression before mature function has been achieved, the asynchronous rates of development of communicative-action components, discontinuous developmental shifts arising from continuous processes, and the process by which adults influence communicative development.