The purpose of this study was to analyze the manifestation of communicative intentionality in motherbaby interactive episodes considering the relations between communicative intentionality, joint attention and mother-baby inter-subjective exchanges. This research involved the participation of 6 mother-baby dyads. Babies were six, nine and twelve months old and were observed in their houses in a free play situation for forty minutes in each observation period. Landmarks of the evolutionary trajectory were identified through observations, making it possible to verify intra-individual and inter-individual changes regarding the abilities evidenced by the dyad. The acquisition of intentional communication and the different interactive contexts of joint attention redirected the course of the interactions in each observed period. This study contributes to the discussion on infant's social cognition in the first year of life emphasizing the relations among joint attention, intentional communication and language acquisition.
Mother-baby interaction; Communicative intentionality; Joint attention
