Some characteristics of young infant's interactive processes are presented through the study of some interactive episodes of 7 to 14 months old babies, video-recorded at a University Day Care Center. The importance of defining a concept of interaction able to capture and reveal the special features of the interactions observed at this early age is first stressed. The relevance of some methodological procedures used to frame the empirical material, is then presented. At this early age, the interactive episodes observed are short-lived and disorganized. Those characteristics result, mainly, from the babies' still uncoordinated motricity. Thus, we suggest that this awkwardness, due to the baby's incomplete motor development, may prolong the interactive episode between young infants and/or even favour the emergence of new interactive episodes.
Babies' interaction; early child development; motor incompleteness; babies at day care