Abstract This study investigated the giving of objects in relation to the child's incipient development of language. The theoretical frame of reference for the study comprised Vygotsky's cultural historical viewpoint of the social origins of development and of the division of development into stages. Development is also determined by the development of communicative activity and the child's stages of mental development alternating between need-motivation and technical skills. Cultural development is founded on the use of signs and on mediated relationships. The basis of the sign is social. It exists in those forms of social interaction in which the child participates before beginning to use language independently. In emotional interaction with another person the child develops social operational models with respect to his dealings with objects. The giving of objects is one such example of this. It is mediated action and one stage of the child's communicative development towards language. In giving objects the child is engaged in meaningful activity. It is action which involves feelings and is both initiated and managed by the child himself. The study consisted of a longitudinal observation of six mother-child pairs in the laboratory. At the beginning of the study the children were six months old and by the end had reached three years of age. The study investigated how the process of giving objects advances and how a developmental transition may be recognised. The relation between giving objects and pointing gestures and the beginning of speech was also a source of interest. Mother-child pairs visited the laboratory monthly and one visit lasted about one hour and half. The study focused on the adult-child pairs'mutual activity episodes and these were analysed micro-analytically. Episodes were classified in terms of mother-child activity, communication through gestures, interaction through speech and metacommunication. The results showed that it is the adult who is the active party in the early stages of the object giving development process. She interprets object giving as a social phenomenon. The child's own self-initiated giving of objects begins between the ages of nine and fifteen months. The giving of objects continues from this moment on throughout successive development stages and assumes a variety of forms of expression. To begin with the child's attention is directed towards the significance of the objects while later on attention shifts towards social relationships. Object giving reveals two developmental transition during the pre-verbal stage: the first of these begins as the child approaches one year of age and the second at the age of about eighteen months. During these transitions the child's relation to his environment, objects and other people become organised in a new way. Before each transition the child's independent movement and imitative behaviour becomes activated while symbolic activity begins after the transition has occurred. Words become to be associated with giving of objects from the age of about thirteen months though most commonly between seventeen and twenty-one months. Between twenty-seven and thirty months the giving of objects stops. By this stage the child has begun to communicate using whole sentences and speech has become an adequate means of communication. The study supported Vygotsky's theory by bringing forth the central importance of the adult in the turning points of child development. The study also revealed the overlapping of the development stages of the social sign with developmental transitions. The giving of objects may be said to describe the child's mental development in a more general way and may be called a social sign anticipating language. / Tiivistelmä Tutkimuksessa selvitettiin esineiden antamista suhteessa lapsen alkavaan kielelliseen kehitykseen. Tutkimuksen teoreettisen perustan muodosti Vygotskyn kulttuurihistoriallinen näkemys kehityksen sosiaalisesta alkuperästä ja kehityksen vaiheittaisuudesta. Kehitystä määrittävät myös kommunikatiivisen toiminnan kehitys ja lapsen kehityksen vaiheet tarve-motivationaalisten ja teknisten taitojen vuorotteluna. Kulttuurinen kehitys perustuu merkkien käyttöön ja välittyneisiin suhteisiin. Merkin perusta on sosiaalinen. Se on olemassa niissä sosiaalisen kanssakäymisen muodoissa, joihin lapsi osallistuu ennen kuin alkaa käyttää kieltä itsenäisesti. Emotionaalisessa vuorovaikutuksessa toiseen ihmiseen lapsi kehittää esineen käsittelyn sosiaalisia toimintamalleja. Esineiden antaminen on näistä yksi. Se on välittynyttä toimintaa ja yksi vaihe kehityksessä kohti kielen hallintaa. Esineitä antaessaan lapsi on mielekkäässä toiminnassa. Toiminta on tunneväritteistä, lapsen itsensä aloittamaa ja hallitsemaa. Tutkimuksen empiirinen vaihe toteutettiin kuuden äiti-lapsiparin pitkäaikaisseurantana laboratoriossa. Tutkimuksen alussa lapset olivat puolivuotiaita ja sen päättyessä kolmivuotiaita. äiti-lapsiparit kävivät laboratoriossa kuukausittain. Yksi käynti kesti noin puolitoista tuntia. Selvitettiin, miten esineiden antaminen etenee sekä miten tunnistaa kehitysmuutos. Myös esineiden antamisen suhde osoittavaan eleeseen ja alkavaan puheeseen oli kiinnostuksen kohteena. Huomion keskiössä olivat äiti-lapsiparin keskinäiset toimintaepisodit, joita analysoitiin mikroanalyyttisesti. Episodeista luokiteltiin äidin ja lapsen toiminta, elekommunikaatio, puhevuorovaikutus sekä metakommunikaatio. Tulosten mukaan esineiden antamisen kehityksessä aikuinen on aluksi aktiivinen osapuoli. Hän tulkitsee esineen antamisen sosiaaliseksi. Lapsen omaehtoinen esineiden antaminen alkaa ikävälillä 9 - 15 kuukautta. Esineiden antaminen käy tästä eteenpäin läpi kehitysvaiheita ja saa erilaisia ilmenemismuotoja. Aluksi lapsen huomio on esineiden merkityksissä, sitten huomion kohteena ovat sosiaaliset suhteet. Esineiden antaminen ilmentää kahta kehityksellistä muutosta esikielellisen vaiheen aikana: ensimmäinen vaihe on ensimmäisen elinvuoden lopulla, toinen lähellä puolentoista vuoden ikää. Tällöin lapsen suhteet ympäristöön, esineisiin ja toisiin ihmisiin järjestyvät uudella tavalla. Molemmissa vaiheissa ennen siirtymää aktivoituvat lapsen omaehtoinen liikkuminen ja jäljittelevä käyttäytyminen sekä sen jälkeen symbolinen toiminta. Sanat alkavat liittyä esineiden antamiseen 13 - 34 kuukauden iässä, tavallisimmin ikävaiheessa 17 - 21 kuukautta. Ikävaiheessa 27 - 30 kuukautta esineiden antamista ei juuri enää esiinny. Tällöin lapsi on alkanut kommunikoida kokonaisin lausein, ja puhekielestä on tullut riittävä kommunikoinnin väline. Tutkimus tukee Vygotskin teoriaa tuomalla esiin aikuisen keskeisen merkityksen lapsen kehityksen käännekohdissa. Tutkimus osoittaa sosiaalisen merkin kehitysvaiheet ja niiden limittymisen kehityksellisiin siirtymiin. Esineiden antaminen kuvastaa lapsen henkisen kehityksen kulkua yleisemmin ja sitä voi kutsua kieltä ennakoivaksi sosiaaliseksi merkiksi.

Submitted by Oliveira Santos Dilzaná (dilznana@yahoo.com.br) on 2014-01-21T13:40:06Z No. of bitstreams: 1 VÍVIAN VOLKMER PONTES.pdf: 4564074 bytes, checksum: 60dcf7571f664deb09ea5711b8570d64 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Portela (anapoli@ufba.br) on 2014-02-03T14:22:59Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 VÍVIAN VOLKMER PONTES.pdf: 4564074 bytes, checksum: 60dcf7571f664deb09ea5711b8570d64 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-02-03T14:22:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 VÍVIAN VOLKMER PONTES.pdf: 4564074 bytes, checksum: 60dcf7571f664deb09ea5711b8570d64 (MD5) / A experiência de uma perda gestacional involuntária representa uma ruptura da gestação em desenvolvimento, daquilo que se esperava e que estava na iminência de acontecer: o tornar-se mãe e o nascimento de um bebê. Deste modo, implica em descontinuidade do desenvolvimento do self, desafiando entendimentos e expectativas que haviam sido construídos acerca de si mesmo e do mundo. A repetição dessas rupturas ao longo da trajetória reprodutiva ameaça o sentido do self, intensifica o nível de ambivalência e maximiza a incerteza em relação ao futuro. O presente estudo consistiu em um aprofundamento teórico e empírico sobre como o self constrói continuidade através de rupturas sucessivas ao longo da trajetória reprodutiva. Implicou entender as dinâmicas do self dialógico no fluxo do tempo, e analisá-las com o intuito de identificar processos de reorganização do self a fim de se manter coeso – apesar das rupturas, das recorrentes descontinuidades. Tendo em vista esta problemática, optou-se por tratá-la a partir do referencial teórico do Construtivismo Semiótico-Cultural, uma perspectiva teórico-metodológica que focaliza a construção inter e intrapessoal da subjetividade humana individual. Como método, realizou-se um estudo de cunho etnográfico realizado em dois contextos distintos de assistência à saúde da mulher e/ou casal com diagnóstico de aborto de repetição, na cidade do Salvador/BA, sendo um vinculado à rede pública e o outro à rede privada. No que concerne às estratégias de coleta de dados, destaque especial foi concedido às entrevistas narrativas. Já com relação à análise dos dados, foi utilizado o Modelo de Equifinalidade de Trajetórias (TEM). Participaram deste estudo dez mulheres com história de perdas gestacionais recorrentes. Após a realização de comparações descritivas entre as trajetórias reprodutivas das participantes – com a finalidade de entender os processos de rupturas e reconstruções na cultura pessoal através da aplicação do TEM –, foi construído um conceito que pudesse oferecer generalidade para o específico dessa experiência. Afinal, a experiência recorrente de rupturas significativas, exige um tipo específico de processo semiótico, que no presente trabalho foi denominado de estratégias semióticas de reparação dinâmica do self. Essas estratégias, ao serem utilizadas, levam à construção de signos específicos – os signos reparadores –, que têm o poder de restaurar a conexão dos fragmentos da trajetória interrompida, construindo alguma articulação entre esses fragmentos e resgatando certo senso de continuidade. Os signos reparadores promovem, assim, a construção de significado para o momento presente, a reconstrução de significados atribuídos às experiências no passado (perdas anteriores) e nova orientação para a gama aceitável de construções de significados orientados para o futuro, conectando-os, relançando-os numa nova narrativa, sempre singular – e, de certo modo, unificada e coerente –, acerca de si mesmo, da sua própria vida e do seu próprio “destino”. The experience of an involuntary pregnancy loss represents a rupture related to what was expected and what was about to happen: becoming a mother and the birth of a baby. Thus, this event implies discontinuity the development of self, challenging understandings and expectations that had been built about the person and the world. The repetition of these ruptures along the trajectory reproductive threatens the sense of self, intensifies the level of ambivalence and maximizes uncertainty about the future. This study consisted in a theoretical and empirical deepening about how the self builds continuity through successive ruptures along the reproductive trajectory. It was set up understand the dynamics of the dialogical self in the flow of time, and analyze them in order to identify processes of reorganization of the self in order to remain cohesive - despite the ruptures, the recurrent discontinuities. In view of this problem, we chose to approach it from the theoretical framework of Semiotic-Cultural Constructivism, a theoretical-methodological framework that focuses on building inter and intrapersonal individual human subjectivity. As a method, the ethnographic study was conducted in two distinct contexts of health care for women and / or couples with a diagnosis of recurrent abortion, in Salvador / BA: one linked to the public network and another network private. Concerning data collection strategies, special attention was given to the narrative interviews. Regarding data analysis, we used the Trajectories Equifinality Model (TEM). The participants of study were ten women with a history of recurrent pregnancy loss. After conducting descriptive comparisons between reproductive trajectories of participants - in order to understand the processes of disruptions and reconstruction in personal culture through the application of TEM - was built a concept that could provide for the generality of this specific experience. After all, the recurring experience of significant disruptions requires a specific type of semiotic process, which in this work was named Semiotic Strategies of Dynamic Self-Repairing. These strategies, when used, lead to the construction of specific signs – repairing signs – who have the power to restore the connection of the fragments of the interrupted trajectory, building a link between these fragments and rescuing some sense of continuity. Repairing signs thereby promotes the construction of meaning for the present moment, the reconstruction of meanings assigned to experiences in the past (previous losses) and new guidance for the acceptable range of constructions of meaning future-oriented, connecting them, relaunching them into a new narrative, always singular - and somehow unified and consistent - about yourself, your own life and your own "destiny".